2024 NLCS breakdown

The 2024 National League Championship Series (NLCS) is over, and the stage for the World Series is set. The Los Angeles Dodgers will face the New York Yankees after they vanquished the New York Mets in six games.

Although the series lasted six games, only one of these games could be considered truly competitive. It was a series full of blowouts from both teams, offensive explosions from one team, while the other went quiet.

The Dodgers outscored the Mets 44-26 in the series. This included two shutouts thrown by the Dodger pitching staff. After scoring 12 runs and forcing a game six the Mets were looking to ride their momentum, like they had all postseason long, and comeback from down 3-1 in the series.

This is where NLCS MVP Tommy Edman would come in clutch for the Dodgers. In the final game of the series, Edman went 2-5 with a home run and four runs batted in (RBI). He would total 11 RBIs in the NLCS, matching the all-time record for RBIs in a single series in Dodger history, tying Corey Seager.

Edman was acquired from the St. Louis Cardinals in a three-team deal that also saw the Dodgers add their new closer, and star reliever, Michael Kopech. Edman was picked up mainly for his defense, but his ability to switch-hit made him dangerous against righties and lefties.

He showed out offensively and got the NLCS MVP award over three former regular season MVPs, Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts.

Outside of Edman, Ohtani and Max Muncy were the best bats for the Dodgers. Ohtani was prolific with runners in scoring position this postseason, at one point getting 18 hits in his last 22 at-bats in that situation. Muncy reached base 17 times over six games, at one point including 12 straight at-bats, which is the all-time record for a single postseason.

Dodger pitching was a huge question coming into the postseason due to their exuberant amount of injuries suffered in the regular season. The available starters would be Jack Flaherty, Walker Buehler and Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

Flaherty can only be considered a slightly above-average pitcher, while Buehler and Yamamoto both spent time on the injured reserve list.

Flaherty would show out in a Dodger shutout in game one lasting seven innings, but suffered a brutal game five start where he allowed eight runs in only three innings of work. Buehler pitched four shutout innings in his lone game three start and likely would have been the game seven starter had the series lasted that long.

Same as Buehler, Yamamoto also only made one start, allowing two runs over 4.1 innings. Finally, the Dodgers had two bullpen games due to their lack of starting pitching depth, allowing seven runs in game two, and five in game six. Although the five runs scored in game six was a moot point due to the offense scoring 10 runs.

The Mets’ starting rotation was a strength for the entire postseason until the NLCS. Their staff held down both the Milwaukee Brewers and Philadelphia Phillies but didn’t find similar results against the Dodgers.

The Mets won games two and five with a final score of 7-3 and 12-6, respectively. In these games, it was clear that when everything clicked for the Mets offensive they could more than keep up with the Dodgers. Despite this offensive showing, in the other four games of the series, the Mets scored only seven runs.

This Mets team relied on clutch hits and homers to take a late lead and win ball games. This game plan had worked all postseason until the NLCS. Their starting and middle relief pitching let the game get out of hand early, and by the time the later innings came, the Mets needed more than a little magic to pull out a victory.

The Dodgers are looking to win their first World Series since 2020 against a familiar foe. This will be the 12th time the Dodgers and Yankees face off in the Fall Classic, with the Yankees winning eight of those previous 11 match-ups.

The Dodger offense will need to continue their offensive output to make up for the faults in their pitching staff if they want a chance to secure their eighth championship in franchise history.

Carter Brooks is a second-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, please email cjb7448@psu.edu.