
A National League Championship Series rematch is on deck this weekend. The New York Mets will host the defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers for three games at Citi Field beginning Friday. The Dodgers beat the Mets in six games in last year's NLCS. Los Angeles scored 46 runs in the six games, a record for an NL team in a single postseason series.
"They're a good team. We're a good team, too," Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said earlier this week (via SNY). "We'll be ready for them. Obviously, they beat us last year in the NLCS and they added a lot more people in the offseason, but we did the same. I think it's gonna be a fun matchup."
The Dodgers and Mets were atop the NL standings most of the season, though both slipped behind the Philadelphia Phillies within the last week or so. The Dodgers are 31-19 with a plus-62 run differential. The Mets are 30-20 with a plus-56 run differential. They're bunched near the top of the league standings alongside the Phillies and Chicago Cubs.
Here are the details for this week's three-game series in Queens. Select games can be streamed regionally on fubo (try for free).
Date | Start time | Starting pitchers | TV |
---|---|---|---|
Fri., May 23 | 7:10 p.m. ET | LHP Clayton Kershaw (0-0, 11.25) vs. RHP Griffin Canning (5-1, 2.47) | Apple TV+ |
Sat., May 24 | 7:15 p.m. ET | RHP Tony Gonsolin (2-0, 4.05) vs. LHP David Peterson (2-2, 2.86) | FOX |
Sun., May 25 | 7:10 p.m. ET | RHP Landon Knack (2-1, 6.17) vs. RHP Kodai Senga (4-3, 1.43) | ESPN |
Three games, three national broadcasts. It's like a postseason series. The postseason is a ways away though. I don't want to make too much of one series in mid-May, but this weekend will be a good measuring stick for both the Dodgers and Mets. It's a chance to get a read on your team against one of the league's other elite clubs.
Here now are four things to know about this weekend's Dodgers vs. Mets series, which a prediction thrown in for good measure.
1. Both teams are scuffling
Neither the Dodgers nor the Mets go into this weekend's series playing their best baseball. Both teams had an off-day on Thursday, and both teams won on Wednesday, but the vibes weren't great before that. The Mets had lost their three previous games and are 2-5 in their last seven games overall. Going back a little further, they're 9-11 in their last 20 games.
As for the Dodgers, they've won two straight games, though they'd lost four straight prior to that, and they're 8-9 in their last 17 games. Given all their pitching injuries, it is no surprise Los Angeles has had trouble keeping runs off the board lately. They recently had a stretch in which they allowed a first inning run(s) in five straight games. Life is tough when you're always playing from behind. Point is, neither the Dodgers nor the Mets are at the top of their game going into this weekend.
2. Soto is back in Queens
Juan Soto is not having a very Soto-like season, and this past week, he was criticized for twice not running hard out of the box, and in one case, turning a potential double into a single. It appeared Soto and Mendoza were not on the same page either. Mendoza said, "We'll discuss that," when asked about Soto's lack of hustle. Soto said, "I think I've been hustling pretty hard." Hmmm.
Soto went 3 for 20 (.150) on New York's just completed six-game road trip and he is 5 for 35 (.143) in his last 10 games. He went 0 for 3 with three strikeouts and a sac fly Wednesday, and the three strikeouts came on 10 total pitches. Soto swung at only one of the 10 pitches. Simply put, he does not look like himself at the plate right now. Hasn't for much of the season.
Garrett Crochet's EPIC Battle against Juan Soto. 😂 pic.twitter.com/zjDP3XULzl
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) May 21, 2025
Friday will be Soto's first game back at Citi Field since he made headlines for his lack of hustle and since last weekend's rough Subway Series matchup with the Yankees. How will he be received? Warmly, I suspect, though I get the sense Mets fans are beginning to grow a little impatient with the $765 million man.
Sign a huge free-agent contract, and you've put yourself under the microscope and saddled yourself with unrealistic expectations. Unfair? Maybe, but that's how these things go, especially in New York. Soto knows what he signed up for. He could use a good, productive weekend against the Dodgers.
3. Who's hot, who's not
Baseball is a game of hot and cold streaks. Consistency is a myth. A .300 hitter doesn't get three hits every 10 at-bats, or even hit .300 every single month. He hits .300 one month, .250 the next, .350 the month after that, etc. Naturally, some Dodgers and Mets players will go into this weekend swinging the bat better than others.
Here are three Dodgers players who have been at their best over the last two weeks:
PA | AVG/OBP/SLG | HR | RBI | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Hyeseong Kim | 23 | .429/.478/.619 | 1 | 3 |
58 | .327/.379/.731 | 6 | 15 | |
39 | .407/.590/.593 | 1 | 7 |
Stalwarts Mookie Betts (.277/.340/.489) and Freddie Freeman (.383/.404/.574) have been very good these last two weeks as well, and Max Muncy has begun to turn his season around (.265/.386/.471). The Dodgers' least productive players over the last few weeks are no longer on the team: Austin Barnes and Chris Taylor were released, and James Outman was sent back to Triple-A.
Here now are three Mets players swinging a hot bat as the Dodgers come to town:
PA | AVG/OBP/SLG | HR | RBI | |
---|---|---|---|---|
32 | .281/.281/.656 | 4 | 10 | |
54 | .271/.333/.500 | 3 | 5 | |
28 | .278/.536/.500 | 1 | 3 |
New York's hottest hitters aren't quite as hot as the Dodgers' hottest hitters. Soto is on the struggle bus, and so too are Pete Alonso (.188/.216/.250), Brandon Nimmo (.220/.289/.366), and Mark Vientos (.268/.295/.390). On any given night, Alonso, Nimmo, and Vientos hit in the 3-4-5 spots in some order, and lately that has been where rallies go to die.
In a way, the Dodgers and Mets go into this series as polar opposites. The Dodgers have had no trouble putting up runs the last few weeks. Keeping running off the board has been a challenge. The Mets are having a hard time pushing runs across offensively and are doing great work keeping their opponent off the scoreboard. A series of contrasting styles, this will be.
4. They'll see each other again soon
For the Dodgers, Friday's game begins a six-game road trip through Queens and Cleveland. After that, they will return home for an all-New York homestand at Dodger Stadium. Three games against the Yankees next weekend (a World Series rematch), then a four-game series with the Mets. The Dodgers and Mets will handle all their regular-season business over the next two weeks.
Although they are not division rivals, these Dodgers vs. Mets games are important. Whichever team wins the season series will have the tiebreaker, and the tiebreaker is something you'd rather have and not need than need and not have. If the Dodgers and Mets finish with the same record, the winner of the season series will be the higher seed, and that could be the difference between playing in the Wild Card Series and getting a bye. The Mets lost the NL East to Atlanta Braves on a tiebreaker in 2022. They know how valuable it is.
Prediction
Let's close with a prediction because why not? I will say the Dodgers win two of three, specifically the last two games of the series, after dropping Friday's opener. Picking the outcome of one single game or one single series is just guesswork. One bounce or one call can change so much. I just like the Dodgers' vibe a little better going into the weekend. The last week or two have not been the smoothest for the Mets and they don't seem to be handling it especially well.