close
close

first Drop

Com TW NOw News 2024

Video: Jesse Winker reacts to Mets’ rare strikeout performance vs. Dodgers in NLCS G5 win | News, scores, highlights, stats and rumors
news

Video: Jesse Winker reacts to Mets’ rare strikeout performance vs. Dodgers in NLCS G5 win | News, scores, highlights, stats and rumors

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - OCTOBER 18: Jesse Winker #3 of the New York Mets reacts after scoring in the third inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers during Game Five of the National League Championship Series at Citi Field on October 18, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)

Al Bello/Getty Images

New York Mets designated hitter Jesse Winker was impressed to hear his team recorded no strikeouts in 44 at-bats during Friday night’s 12-6 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 5 of the NLCS.

Winker credited hitters Jeremy Barnes and Eric Chavez and Mets hitters Francisco Lindor, Brandon Nimmo and Pete Alonso for the feat.

“I just heard that, that’s unbelievable,” Winker said in a postgame interview at Citi Field. “We had a great game plan, so shout out Barnesy and Chavey. Francisco, Nimmo and Pete really set the tone in the first inning.”

The Mets recorded 14 hits, five walks and three hit batters with no strikeouts in the must-win victory. According to Mike Axisa of CBS Sports, they are the first team to complete a postseason game without strikeouts in 22 years.

The last team to achieve the feat was the Los Angeles Angels, who recorded no strikeouts in 40 at-bats during an 11-10 victory over the San Francisco Giants in Game 2 of the 2002 World Series, according to Axisa.

The only other team not to record strikeouts in a postseason game since the MLB expanded in 1961 is the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Bucs accomplished the feat in 37 at-bats during a 5-2 loss to the Dodgers in the 1974 NLCS, Axisa reported.

The Mets struck out 22.4 percent of their plate appearances during the regular season, but the top of the batting order set a different tone in the first inning when Lindor singled and Nimmo walked off the pitches of Dodgers starter Jack Flaherty .

After Mark Vientos hit a fly ball, Alonso stepped up to the plate and sent both runners home with a 400-foot home run that gave the Mets a lead they would hold for the rest of the game.

Flaherty recorded the loss for the Dodgers with eight hits and eight earned runs in three innings. Brent Honeywell, who took the mound in the fourth, helped extend the Mets’ no-strikeout streak by hitting Alonso, Winker and Tyrone Taylor with pitches before bringing on Anthony Banda to end the game with two outs in the eighth.

Winker and his team will now look to ride Friday’s momentum into another must-win match on Sunday as the series returns to Los Angeles. The Mets need one more win to push the Dodgers into a winner-takes-all Game 7 on Monday, with a trip to the World Series on the line.