Relax.
The Dodgers still own this. The Dodgers are still in control. The Dodgers still have the New York Mets right where they want them.
Two games at Dodger Stadium. Win one and advance to the World Series. Shohei Ohtani hot. Mookie Betts hotter. Andy Pages burning out of nowhere. A rested and nearly unhittable bullpen for Game 6. Walker Buehler prepared to throw legendary fists in a Game 7, if necessary.
Done deal, still.
Yes, the Dodgers blew their first shot at the Fall Classic on Friday night in a 12-6 loss to the Mets in Game 5 of the NLCS Friday at Citi Field, shrinking their lead to 3-2.
And yes, at one point it was a tad unsettling for your faithful correspondent when a fan sitting outside the press box spotted me and held up his phone containing my story from the previous day in which I proclaimed this series was over. The fan and his buddy began screaming at me, to which I now offer this reply.
Read more: Dodgers can’t overcome Jack Flaherty’s struggles in NLCS Game 5 loss to Mets
Sir, I am doubling down.
The Dodgers are still going to win this series. They are still going to the World Series. The Mets got a little juice from the hometown crowd Friday, but they’re still the Mets, they still burned their best reliever to protect a six-run lead, they still took senseless swings, this is still over.
“They did better today,” said Teoscar Hernández, conceding nothing. “That’s how the game is.”
After spending their pregame interview sessions talking about how it felt to be on the precipice of the World Series, the Dodgers quickly fell into a loud and strange abyss that was an outlier, not a trend.
The singing, bouncing fans here were already fired up when the Temptations sang the national anthem before following up with “My Girl” in honor of Francisco Lindor’s walk-up song. The fans became even more inspired when Ohtani was stranded on third base in the first inning after surprisingly not scoring on a grounder to shortstop Lindor.
“I think he just had a brain cramp and locked up there,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts of Ohtani during an in-game broadcast interview, a rare critique of Superman.
The Dodgers’ hopes went downhill from there, thanks to a sudden weariness in pitcher Jack Flaherty’s right arm. That was the strange part. Five days after shutting down the Mets on two hits in seven innings in winning this series opener, Flaherty had nothing Friday night, his fastball was…