LOS ANGELES – The Ohtani Dodgers have history, positivity and celebrity in them, and that’s a lot. But that Mets mojo, well, it’s something else.

The Mets can’t match this hyped-up, talented Dodgers band in star power or Q-rating. However, they appear to be strong in New York, and in the end that may be enough.

Nobody, absolutely nobody, expected the Mets to survive well into October. But what they mean to them cannot be evaluated through analytics.

The measure of their magic has not yet been invented.

And it’s not on a stat sheet either.

The Mets are comeback artists. And like few teams before them, they have an unusual ability to take a punch.

The favored Dodgers scored a shot at the kisser in Game 1, and the Mets, unyielding and unfazed, struck back when necessary, leaving the National League Championship Series deadlocked at home at a game apiece after their 7-3 win before another sale took place. crowd at Dodger Stadium.

“It was a big game today, especially after the way we played on Sunday,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “It was a quick turnaround, but we’ve done that all year. We got hit in the face and we keep looking for ways to get back up. And it will remain that way.”

This game was the opposite of most of October.

The Mets built a six-point lead early on another grand slam (this one from October dear Mark Vientos) and held on. Controversial closer Edwin Diaz got the last four outs through the heart of the Dodgers order, the last three on swinging strikeouts of Mookie Betts, Teoscar Hernandez and Freddie Freeman with two men on. It was a new way of doing it for this gaming club that normally likes to play from the back.

It was mainly the Mets. But it was also the Dodgers. No matter how famous they are, they do have problems.

Momentum, they say, is only as good as the next day’s starter. And unfortunately for LA, they weren’t there.

With a salary of over $300 million, but a near-unprecedented ability to get hurt and stay hurt, the Dodgers only lasted until Game 2 of this NLCS before needing what is known as a bullpen game , which requires relying on up to nine relievers and constant prayer. The Dodgers had little choice.

The problem for LA is that the Mets are dead on relievers, as star closers Raisel Iglesias, Devin Williams and Carlos Estevez, all victims in late September and October, could tell you. The Dodgers do have a shutdown pen, but that’s good for late in games, not for an entire game.

Los Angeles should be the big player in the league after spending a billion dollars this winter (with more than half deferred – their accountants are as talented as their players). But the problem is that almost half of their current payroll is on the injured list.

Specifically, they have a veritable “Who’s Who” of starting pitchers who are injured/out (Tyler Glasnow, Clayton Kershaw, Gavin Stone, Dustin May), not quite ready to return (Tony Gonsolin) or unusable due to inexplicably poor performance ( Bobby Miller). So they had no choice but to use a collection of relievers. The result was ugly for the home team.

Vientos, whose favorite month remains October, inspired chants of “Let’s Go Mets” from the small but boisterous contingent behind the Mets first base dugout with the clap that simultaneously quieted the locals. Vientos’ drive to right-center field from the second of five pitchers the Dodgers tried (Landon Knack) came after the Dodgers intentionally walked Mets MVP Francisco Lindor, who started the game by homering himself for a near must -win game for the Mets to start. .

“I took it personally,” Vientos said of the free pass to Lindor.

Maybe the Mets felt the same way about that debacle of an opener here. But even after being decimated 9-0 in that first, the Mets return to Queens with a home-court lead and some momentum of their own.

Forget the bigger names of the Dodgers.

Consider the Dodgers’ pitching mess.

Also, consider the true resilience of the Mets, and now believe that the Mets have a small and unexpected advantage in this series.

The Mets pulled themselves out of the one-day doldrums by returning to their mostly excellent October form. The Mets generally play with amazing urgency, but you have to wonder if their leisurely pace to get here, which left no room for a day of practice at Dodger Stadium, hurt them in Game 1.

Of course, the Mets can have one blast on this fantastic journey through the National League’s toughest venues. Since the end of September, they’ve been through Atlanta twice, Milwaukee twice, Philly, LA and one hurricane named Helene. They all got through it and survived. And now they have the momentum for their return trip to New York.

No one expected the Mets to be here, but now that they’ve defied all odds, they continue to make things interesting. It’s been an amazing ride already. And who says they can’t keep it up?