The Mets are exposing this glaring Dodgers mess

LOS ANGELES — The Ohtani Dodgers have history, positivity and celebrity going for them, and that’s a lot.But that Mets mojo, well, it’s something else.The Mets can’t match this exulted, accomplished Dodgers band for star power or Q rating, but they are proving to be New York tough, and ultimately, that may be enough.No one but no one expected the Mets to survive this far into October.

But what they have going for them can’t be evaluated via analytics.The metric for it hasn’t been invented yet.And it doesn’t appear on a stat sheet, either.The Mets are comeback artists.And like few teams before them, they possess an unusual ability to take a punch.The Dodgers landed a shot to the kisser in Game 1, and the Mets, unbowed and unfazed, hit back when they needed to, taking the National League Championship Series back home deadlocked at a game apiece after their 7-3 victory before another sellout crowd at Dodger Stadium.The Mets built an early six-run lead on yet another grand slam (this one by October darling Mark Vientos) and hung on in this one.

Embattled closer Edwin Diaz got the final four outs through the heart of the Dodgers order, the last three on strikeouts of Mookie Betts, Teoscar Hernandez and Freddie Freeman with two on.It was a new way to do it for this game club that apparently likes to play from behind.It was mostly the Mets.But the Dodgers, as celeb-heavy as they come, do have some issues.Momentum, they say, is only as good as the next day’s starter.

And unfortunately for L.A., they were plum out of those.With their $300 million-plus payroll but an almost unprecedented ability to get hurt and stay hurt, the Dodgers lasted only until Game 2 of this NLCS before they needed what’s become known as a “bullpen game,” which requires a reliance on up to nine relievers and constant praying.The Dodgers had little choice.The problem for L.A.

is the Mets are death on relievers, as star closers Raisel Iglesias, Devin Williams and Carlos Estevez...