Slighted by IBB, Vientos’ slam helps Mets get even

LOS ANGELES — The intentional walk, if you think about it, was appropriate. Two runners were on in a two-run game. First base was open with two outs. Francisco Lindor, a potential MVP who had already homered, was up to bat. And yet Mark Vientos, who would deliver the grand slam that set the tone in the New York Mets‘ 7-3 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 2 of the National League Championship Series on Monday, said he “took it personal.”

That reaction, if you ask Vientos’ teammates, was also appropriate.

“My man’s got a lot of confidence in himself,” said Sean Manaea, the Mets’ winning pitcher. “I love that.”

Vientos’ grand slam off Landon Knack, who was expected to do most of the work in what qualified as a bullpen game for the Dodgers, capped a five-run second inning that helped the Mets split the first two games from Dodger Stadium, evening the best-of-seven NLCS with three games from New York’s Citi Field on tap.

It was also the continuation of a miraculous run for Vientos — from an .820 OPS over the regular season’s last four months to the game-winning hit in the postseason opener, the game-tying single in Game 1 of the NL Division Series and, now, the big home run in a game the Mets desperately needed.

At 24 years and 308 days old, Vientos became the youngest player to hit a grand slam in the history of this round, a mere 49 days younger than Rafael Devers in 2021. Vientos’ 11 RBIs are tied for the most in Mets postseason history through a player’s first nine games, along with John Olerud in 1999, Carlos Delgado in 2006 and Daniel Murphy in 2015. All told, Vientos is slashing .378/.410/.676 with three home runs in October.

And yet the most impressive thing about him might be this: An unheralded player who didn’t have a job early this season was insulted that an opposing team would walk one of the game’s best players ahead of him.

“That’s who he is,” Lindor said of Vientos. “I’m glad he took it personal. He’s got to continue to climb.”

The Dodgers’ pitching staff entered Monday’s game on a string of 33 consecutive scoreless innings, tied with the 1966 Baltimore Orioles for the most in postseason history. Lindor put an end to that by working an eight-pitch at-bat against opener Ryan Brasier and finishing it with a leadoff homer. The Mets continued to apply pressure in the next inning. Starling Marte started with a single, Jesse Winker drew a walk and Tyrone Taylor came up with an RBI double two batters later, putting runners on second and third and setting up Lindor’s intentional walk.

Vientos felt ready.

“I want to be up there during that at-bat,” he said. “I want them to walk Lindor in that situation, put me up there. And at that point I was just, ‘Let me simplify the game, just get one run in, get a walk — whatever I can do to add another run to the score.’ And luckily I hit a bomb.”

Vientos is navigating through his first postseason, but his ability to simplify at-bats — to slow his thoughts, remain calm, keep his body under control — has stood out to those who have watched him closely. Those traits showed again in his confrontation with Knack. Vientos took a first-pitch ball, then fouled off back-to-back sliders. Knack used those pitches to set up a high fastball to try for a strikeout, but Vientos fouled the pitch back. He later took two sliders low and away “with ease,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said.

When he got another fastball — a pitch Vientos was hoping for but didn’t expect — it traveled right down the middle. Rather than aggressively try to pull the pitch, Vientos saw it deep into the zone and smacked it to the opposite field, a 102 mph line drive that snuck over the wall in right-center. Vientos went deep on the ninth pitch of the at-bat, after the most pitches seen before a grand slam in the past 50 postseasons, according to ESPN Research.

“You didn’t see a big swing,” Mendoza said. “It was, ‘Let me put it in play. Let me stay in the big part of the ballpark.’ And he was able to drive that one. You see the next at-bat, against a lefty, just going the other way with ease and just shoot the ball the other way. That’s a sign of not only a good hitter, but someone that is mature and is under control. It doesn’t matter the situation.”

You can say the same thing about the 2024 Mets, who have followed all three of their postseason losses with multiple-run victories.

Manaea, who transformed his career by dropping his arm slot and pitching across his body, held the Dodgers to only a Max Muncy home run through the first five innings, keeping a big early lead intact. The Mets nearly fumbled it away in a sixth inning that saw Jose Iglesias and Pete Alonso misplay groundballs, but Phil Maton got a red-hot Kiké Hernández to bounce into an inning-ending double play to preserve a three-run lead. Ryne Stanek followed, then Edwin Diaz came in for the four-out save.

The Mets will now have three straight games at Citi Field.

In other words, they have a chance to clinch one of the most improbable World Series berths in recent memory at home.

“Playing in front of the New York fans is the best,” Vientos said. “I’m excited to get back.”