The sold-out crowd was lively and enthusiastic for the Mets’ first National League Championship Series game at Citi Field in nearly a decade.

But unfortunately, the Mets couldn’t come close to rewarding the electricity in the house.

For once in October, they failed to match the moment.

This magical, masterful team that delivered several thrilling endings and rewrote many unfortunate scripts (and game columns) couldn’t pull it off for once.

For once there was no fantastic finish.

There were no heroics by the home team.

The Dodgers were the team with the late fireworks this time. A majestic home run by international superstar Shohei Ohtani well over the right field foul pole and rightly so (this was the right call, but again, that pole needs to be higher!) and another by Max Muncy in the final few innings gave the Dodgers the fourth an 8-0 victory and calmed a clearly dejected crowd.

Someone at the press box belatedly shouted, “Wake the (beep) up.” We expect that starting Thursday in Game 4.

The team from Queens is eliminated, but we know better than to count them out. They have lost two games to one in this mega-market, highly rated NLCS. But comebacks are their thing, as we’ve seen again and again in this rocking October.

“We have to come out and play the game the right way,” Francisco Lindor said. “Today we made more mistakes than they did. When we limit our mistakes, we put ourselves in a good position. They played the game better than us. They executed people on the base. There was good defense. (But) I still have a lot of confidence in it.”

These Mets made their stunning comeback in recent weeks against some of the very best in their class, beating the Braves, the Brewers and Phillies – all of whom are now out of this derby. Now they will have to do it against a team full of players who deserve their own tribute on the Walk of Fame on Hollywood Boulevard.

If anyone can do it, it’s these Mets.

“We beat nine nothing in the first game and we came back and won Game 2. I don’t see any reason why we can’t do that tomorrow,” Mets reliever Reed Garrett said. “I think everyone believes in ourselves and wants to go out and compete and I think that’s what we’re going to get (Thursday).”

It’s really surprising now that this club can’t get it done. That’s exactly what happened in the first NLCS game here since the days of David Wright and Daniel Murphy. The sold-out audience of 43,883 people, who braved the October cold, deserved better after almost a decade of waiting.

Fans were ready for the big night that would never come. The Mets called on Doc and Darryl for the first ball ceremony, which was a nice touch, and they thrilled the crowd with “Let’s Go Mets!” chants. They kept it clean, which was nice too.

The environment was full of energy. However, the crime was never fired.

The Mets’ best plays were made on defense, which prevented LA from piling up. The Mets made two highlight plays — a sliding, diving catch by Tyrone Taylor that was reminiscent of Tommie Agee’s great play in the 1969 World Series — that briefly electrified the crowd. But they never put together a lineup that yielded little against previously collapsing Dodgers starter Walker Buehler and their vaunted, excellent relief corps.

While the Mets made a few special defensive plays (Lindor executed a beautiful backhand scoop on a hot grounder by Mookie Betts), the Mets also tacked on two runs early, as an accidental ball by the Dodgers resulted in an unearned lead in the second inning. collection.

Three actionable actions that were not made led to the damage. OMG it was so bad.

“If you give a team like this extra zeros, they’re going to make you pay for it,” manager Carlos Mendoza said.