Upstart Mets actually heavyweights with NLCS at inflection point

Unless you possessed a crystal ball or David Stearns’ special knowledge/faith in his team, the Mets looked like they were headed for a transition year with the potential to play .500 baseball in 2024.Then they started playing, and even that looked optimistic. The Dodgers, meantime, were viewed as an unstoppable force after doling out more than $1 billion last winter for international superstar Shohei Ohtani, coveted young right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto and assorted others, adding to a crazy collection of holdover stars. Yet there they stood, dead even in the National League Championship Series heading into Game 3 at Citi Field on Wednesday night.

And guess what? In at least some ways, if not most, the Mets hold the edge.Here’s why they should be favored in by far the more interesting series going on (and if you doubt that, check the ratings!): There’s a reason Dodgers manager Dave Roberts called this his “most challenging season,” and this is probably reason one through five.

The Dodgers employ a veritable All-Star team of starters, but most of them remain out (Tyler Glasnow, Clayton Kershaw, Gavin Stone, Dustin May, Tony Gonsolin, Emmet Sheehan and River Ryan, plus of course Ohtani, at least as a pitcher for now) or slumping to the point of being unusable (Bobby Miller). That leaves a rotation of three, and even they have questions attached to them.Jack Flaherty shut down a flat Mets team in Game 1, but he’s been battling a lower-back issue most of the year, to the point where the Yankees backed away from a trade for him.

Flaherty’s a pro and his location was pinpoint, but the Mets looked off for the only time this October following a few days off and their cross country flight.(Dodgers folks actually wondered why they didn’t fly out a day earlier and work out at Dodger Stadium.) Yamamoto was one of the most ballyhooed and beloved free agents ever, but he’s currently a five-inning pitcher whose patented split finger isn’t what it was s...