Mets stepping up in class with Dodgers will put resilience to new test after forgettable loss

LOS ANGELES — The Mets came to Dodger Stadium, one of the most perfect places on this planet, with its stunning San Gabriel Mountains, manicured lawn of gorgeous green and lovely California color scheme, and they played their ugliest game in weeks, if not months.The team that could do no wrong in seemingly forever did nothing right.The magical Mets turned themselves into must-watch TV in this wonderful, memorable journey of theirs.But in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series here, it was preferable to look away unless you were wearing Dodger blue in the Mets’ 9-0 defeat.Mets fans who made the trek from The Big Apple serenaded owner Steve Cohen before the game.

“Uncle Steve,” they chanted.By the end, all we heard was “Fredd-ie, Fredd-ie.” And later, “M-V-P.” It wasn’t for Francisco Lindor.This was a party, and the Mets were left off the invite list.Mets flash starter Kodai Senga is famed for his trick pitch, the ghost fork that allegedly disappears.But this time, the trick was on the Mets.

It was Senga who didn’t show up.With only 7 ¹/₃ innings on his 2024 docket coming into the game, Senga wasn’t ready or prepared, and he pitched more like a late-season call-up than a coveted international signee and 2023 ace.He threw 30 pitches, and 20 of them were balls.

In modern parlance, he ratio-ed himself.The Mets’ nonstop lineup finally stopped.They gathered only two hits off Dodgers starter Jack Flaherty, who spared their overtaxed shut-down bullpen with seven scoreless innings, bringing the Dodgers’ NL record streak for one postseason to 31 such innings.Follow The Post’s coverage of the Mets in the postseason:The one frame that began promisingly for the Mets, with two straight hits, was undermined when Jesse Winker got caught between second and third after Jose Iglesias followed his single with one of his own.

The Mets were just not themselves.The Dodgers just got through a hard-fought, at times hellish series with the Padres,...