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    • Mets learn their NLCS foe after Dodgers-Padres Game 5
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    Mets learn their NLCS foe after Dodgers-Padres Game 5

    Vaseline Posted on

    How long has it been since the Mets last faced the Dodgers?

    So long that the last time the teams played each other, “OMG” and Grimace were just an acronym and a fast food fictional character.

    It would have been hard to imagine then, in late May, that the National League Championship Series still lay ahead for both.

    The Dodgers, yes, but the Mets?

    Teoscar Hernandez homered for the Dodgers in their Game 5 victory on October 11. USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Con

    That’s baseball.

    The NL pennant will be decided starting Sunday with Game 1 of the NLCS between the Mets and Dodgers in Los Angeles.

    The Dodgers joined the Mets in the NLCS round on Friday with a 2-0 victory over the Padres in Game 5 of the NLDS.

    The Dodgers will face the Mets in the NLCS. Getty Images

    It’s those Dodgers who won three games at Citi Field in May, sending the Mets 11 games under .500 and leading to changes.

    The Mets held a players meeting.

    Jose Iglesias arrived to reinvigorate the lineup, bringing his recently released song “OMG” to become the soul of the team.

    And after Grimace threw out the ceremonial first pitch on June 12 and the team continued to win, an unofficial team mascot was born.

    It will be the fourth postseason series between the coastal rivals.

    The Mets won the last one, the 2015 NLDS, on the back of Daniel Murphy.

    The Padres lost in Game 5 on October 11. Getty Images

    The only NLCS meeting between the teams came in 1988, when the Dodgers surprised a Mets team that had visions of winning a second World Series in three years.

    Now the names are Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and Yoshinobu Yamamoto and enough star power to keep Southern California shining during a blackout.

    After weeks of scrambling, the Mets found themselves in the unfamiliar position Friday of taking it relatively easy while their opponent faced the stress in the next round.

    The Mets held an afternoon team workout at Citi Field before the Padres and Dodgers played Game 5 of the NLDS in Los Angeles.

    “It’s nice to have these days off and you can reset the pitching and remap it as many times as you want,” manager Carlos Mendoza said during a Zoom call with reporters. “But I think it’s more the peace of mind for our guys, the position player group and just the whole team in general. With all the back and forth and the traveling and all the intense games we’ve been playing, to have these few days to reset and get some treatment for the guys and things like that is huge.”

    As for pitching, Mendoza was unwilling to announce a rotation for the NLCS.

    That, he said, was more a function of trying to gauge where his pitchers are between starts than the uncertainty of which team the Mets would face.

    Kodai Senga, Luis Severino and Sean Manaea are all Game 1 options.

    Manaea, who pitched on Tuesday, is the least rested of that team, but would still be on his normal fifth day of play.

    Senga, who threw two innings in his return from the injured list last Saturday, would still be limited and would most likely need a piggyback from David Peterson, but Tylor Megill is another possibility.

    The Mets plan to hold one more practice at Citi Field on Saturday before heading to Southern California.

    As much as Brandon Nimmo enjoyed the time off Thursday and Friday, he’s also aware that the Mets can’t afford to relax.

    “It’s the most important thing to keep the rust away because so far we’ve been able to play high-intensity games and not get too many days off in between,” Nimmo said. “(The days off) are definitely great for the injury side of things, but we also have to make sure we stay mentally focused and we try to treat these (trainings) like game replays.”

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