Sports
Behind Mark Vientos and Francisco Lindor, the Mets punch back to even the NLCS
LOS ANGELES — It happened in a literal blink, a quiver of Mark Vientos’ eyebrow under his sunglasses when he understood the Los Angeles Dodgers’ decision. They wanted nothing to do with Francisco Lindor, and they preferred Landon Knack face Vientos in a crucial spot.
“All right, you want me up?” Vientos summarized his own look. “I’m gonna show you.”
“There’s one thing that Mark doesn’t lack, and that’s confidence,” Lindor said chuckling. “That’s who he is. I’m glad he took it personal.”
It takes a certain kind of confidence to view that decision by Los Angeles, to bypass your team’s obvious MVP who’d already homered in the game to face you, as disrespectful. But you don’t step into the big leagues at 22 calling yourself “Swaggy V” without that precise level of hubris. And on Monday in Game 2 of the NLCS, Vientos justified that self-belief as he has all season long.
Vientos’ second-inning grand slam was the keynote of the Mets’ 7-3 win over the Dodgers on Monday in Chavez Ravine. A day after being flattened by Los Angeles, the Mets returned the favor to even the series. Game 3 is in Queens on Wednesday night.
SLAMMA-JAMMA@MarkVientos_5 | #LGM pic.twitter.com/UzsPArfiPP
— x – New York Mets (@Mets) October 14, 2024
At this point, it’s no surprise to see the Mets pick themselves off the mat as swiftly as they did Monday. Resilience is the animating impulse of this team, and its belief in its ability to rebound has only strengthened throughout the season.
But belief, like currency, requires something legitimate in reserve backing it up. And so often for the Mets this season, that belief has been fueled by the quality of their at-bats, by the finer points of pitch recognition, of controlling counts, of seizing upon a mistake in the moment.
That belief is built on at-bats like Monday’s biggest from Lindor and Vientos.
Vientos’ at-bat against Knack was a clear pivot point early in the game. The Mets had jumped ahead on Lindor’s leadoff homer, and they’d added one run already against Knack in the second. But Francisco Alvarez had popped up with two in scoring position, and the Dodgers were an out away from keeping the game tight.
Given his reaction to Lindor’s free pass, you might have expected Vientos to be especially aggressive against Knack. But his emerging sense of poise was obvious from the start, when he comfortably took Knack’s strike-to-ball slider to start the at-bat.
“He understands that he’s not bigger than the moment,” Lindor said of Vientos’ approach. “He’s just got to be part of the moment.”
Vientos fouled off a pair of sliders to make it 1-2, then fouled back a hard fastball above the strike zone. Vientos hunts the fastball: More than half his homers this year came on heaters, and he slugged .670 when he put in play four-seam fastballs like Knack’s.
Which is why, when ahead 1-2, Knack threw him four straight sliders — two in the dirt he laid off and two on the plate he fouled off. Eight pitches deep into the at-bat, Knack tried to get a fastball by him on the outside corner. It was right down the middle.
“I didn’t think he was going to give me a fastball,” Vientos said. “My approach was to see a heater up, but I wasn’t expecting heater. I thought I was going to get a slider and I was just going to poke it in the hole.”
And when he saw the fastball?
“Yeah, I wasn’t going to miss it.”
Vientos took it 391 feet the other way to make it 6-0.
“The deeper you get into the at-bat, you’ve got more information,” Lindor said.
“You only have so many tricks,” said reliever Ryne Stanek, explaining the pitcher’s perspective on those long at-bats. “It makes the at-bat substantially harder when you’ve exposed everything you’ve got.”
Vientos is backing up a breakout regular season with a bonkers postseason: Through nine games, he’s hitting .378 with three home runs and a 1.086 OPS. (10/86? That was a good month for the Mets.)
“He’s growing up,” said Lindor.
“He’s been doing special things this whole year,” starter Sean Manaea said. “He’s risen to every occasion.”
Lindor had provided a blueprint for that at-bat one inning earlier, leading off the game. Against Ryan Brasier, Lindor fouled off two fastballs and two sliders before, on the eighth pitch, Brasier resorted to his third-best pitch: a cutter he’d thrown just 12 percent of the time this season.
That, too, was center-cut. Lindor banged it into the Mets bullpen, halting Los Angeles’ 33-inning scoreless streak in the process.
“It just kickstarts everything,” Manaea said. “It’s a new day, it’s a new game. You can’t really start off any better way.”
“(It was big) not just because of the homer but the way he attacked him,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “He fouled off a couple of pitches, laid off a couple of breaking balls and got a pitch and drove it to set the tone.”
The Mets worked those long plate appearances all day. Jesse Winker had helped spark the rally in the second with a seven-pitch walk. Tyrone Taylor drove in a run despite being down in the count 0-2. Pete Alonso had a 10-pitch at-bat later, even if it ended in a strikeout.
The series now returns to Queens, shortened to a best-of-five with home-field advantage shifting to the Mets.
“We get punched in the face and we continue to find ways to get back up,” Mendoza said. “And it will continue to be that way.”
(Photo of Mark Vientos: Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images)
Sports
Austin Reaves nearing return for Lakers as Luka Doncic remains out indefinitely with hamstring strain: report
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In early April, with just five games remaining in the regular season, the Los Angeles Lakers announced that star guard Luka Doncic would be sidelined at least until the NBA playoffs.
Doncic’s setback was a Grade 2 left hamstring strain, an MRI confirmed. The reigning NBA scoring champion sustained the injury during an April 2 game against the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Lakers also entered the playoffs without another key member of their backcourt, Austin Reaves.
The shorthanded Lakers upset the Houston Rockets in the opening game of their first-round Western Conference series Saturday. Ahead of Game 2 on Tuesday, the Lakers reportedly received a clearer update on the health of at least one of their injured stars.
Lakers guard Austin Reaves brings the ball up court against the Washington Wizards in Los Angeles on March 30, 2026. (Ryan Sun/AP)
Reaves, who was diagnosed with an oblique strain, appears to be progressing toward a return later in the first-round series if it extends to six or seven games. If the Lakers advance sooner, he could be on track to return for the Western Conference semifinals.
According to ESPN, Reaves recently returned to the practice court for 1-on-1 drills. The 27-year-old will still need to progress to 2-on-3 and then 5-on-5 work before he can be cleared for playoff action, but he appears significantly further along than Doncic, who remains out indefinitely.
Luka Doncic of the Los Angeles Lakers controls the ball against the Orlando Magic at the Kia Center on March 21, 2026. (Nathan Ray Seebeck/Imagn Images)
Doncic is unlikely to play in the first round, regardless of the series length. ESPN footage showed him on the practice court on Tuesday, though the six-time All-Star was not doing high-intensity work.
2025-26 NBA PLAYOFF ODDS: SPREADS, LINES FOR FIRST-ROUND SERIES
The Rockets, despite being widely favored in the opening round playoffs series, also contended with key injuries. Kevin Durant missed Game 1 with a knee contusion. He was cleared to play in Game 2 on Tuesday night.
Houston Rockets forward Jabari Smith Jr. shoots the ball against the Lakers during Game 1 in the NBA playoffs at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, California, on April 18, 2026. (Kirby Lee/Imagn Images)
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LeBron James scored 19 points, while Luke Kennard led Los Angeles with 27 in Saturday’s win.
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Watching junior right-hander Fabian Bravo of Sun Valley Poly High pitch for the first time, there was something strangely familiar about his windup.
When he turned his back to reveal he was wearing No. 32, everything made sense.
He had to be a fan of Sandy Koufax, the 1960s Hall of Fame left-hander for the Dodgers.
Two friends sitting next to me refused to believe it.
“No way,” one said.
“Kids today have never heard of Sandy Koufax,” another piped in.
Only after Bravo threw a three-hit shutout to beat North Hollywood 3-0 was my belief vindicated.
“I come into the back with my arms and it’s a little bit like a Sandy Koufax kind of thing,” he said. “I wear 32 too. He was the starting pitcher for the Dodgers and was good in the World Series.”
Koufax was perfect-game good on Sept. 9, 1965, against the Chicago Cubs at Dodger Stadium, striking out 14.
Bravo started learning about No. 32 when his parents would bring him to Dodger Stadium as a young boy.
“I always saw No. 32 retired on the wall,” he said. “Once I got to know him, I was able to see who he really was. I felt I could really copy him and get myself deeper into history.”
Bravo is no Koufax in terms of being a power pitcher. He’s 5 feet 10 and 140 pounds. Since last season, when he changed his windup to briefly emulate Koufax’s arms going above his head, he has a 12-3 record. This season he’s 3-1 with a 1.50 ERA.
“I saw his windup and he looked like he was calm and composed and I tried it. I felt more of a rhythm. I was able to calm down and pitch better,” he said.
After Bravo’s arms go up over his head in his windup, he also does a brief hesitation breathing in and out before throwing the ball toward home plate.
“My dad always taught me to breathe in, breathe out before I do anything,” he said.
Nowadays, teenagers seemingly don’t pay much attention to greats of the past, from old ballplayers to Hall of Fame coaches. Ask someone if they know John Wooden, kids today probably don’t. He did win 10 NCAA basketball titles coaching for UCLA. And who was Don Drysdale? Only a Dodger Hall of Fame pitcher alongside Koufax from Van Nuys High.
Bravo is fortunate he’s seen Dodger broadcasts mentioning Koufax at the stadium and on TV, motivating him to learn more, which led to seeing his windup on YouTube.
His older brother also wore No. 32, so no one was getting that uniform number other than a Bravo brother at Poly.
There is another Bravo set to arrive in the fall. Julian Bravo will be a freshman left-handed pitcher and wants No. 32.
“While I’m there he’s going to have to find a new number,” Fabian Bravo said.
Julian might also want to help his big brother gain a few pounds at the dinner table.
“My brother takes food from me,” he said.
As for recognizing Bravo’s Koufax connection, it was No. 32 that provided the clue. How many pitchers in the 1970s were choosing No. 32? A lot. And it’s great to see a 17-year-old in 2026 paying tribute to one of the greatest pitchers ever.
Emulating Koufax is hard, but forgetting him is unforgivable.
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Eli Manning retired in 2019 and missed out in his first year of Hall of Fame eligibility in 2025. He was passed over again earlier this year but still fired back at a fan who claimed one of his contemporaries was the better quarterback.
On Tuesday, a social media user floated a theory about former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan. Ryan, who now oversees football operations as the team’s president, last played in an NFL game in 2022. He announced his retirement in 2024, making him eligible for Hall of Fame consideration beginning in 2028.
“Matt Ryan was a better QB than Eli Manning… people just worship rings. Agree or nah,” the post read.
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New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning greets Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan after their game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia, on Oct. 22, 2018. (Jason Getz/USA TODAY Sports)
Manning caught wind of the suggestion and weighed in, pointing to the two Super Bowl-winning teams he was part of during his standout run with the New York Giants.
“I will ponder this while I play with my rings…,” Manning wrote in a quote-tweet.
Ryan’s statistical production surpasses Manning’s, at least on paper. He was named NFL MVP in 2016, an honor Manning never earned. Ryan is also the most accomplished player in Falcons history and finished his career with more than 62,000 regular-season passing yards, compared with Manning’s 57,023.
NFC head coach Eli Manning leads a huddle during a practice session before the NFL Pro Bowl at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nev., on Feb. 4, 2023. (Michael Owens/Getty Images)
Both quarterbacks were selected to four Pro Bowls, but the key difference lies in championships. Manning won the Super Bowl in 2007 and 2011, while Ryan reached it once but fell short. Manning threw for a single season career-best 4,933 during the run leading up to the second Super Bowl title.
Ryan threw for 284 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions to help the Falcons build a 25-point lead in the championship game — a matchup remembered for the New England Patriots engineering the largest comeback in Super Bowl history.
Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan passes the ball against the Buffalo Bills during the second half at Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park, N.Y., on Jan. 2, 2022. (Rich Barnes/USA TODAY Sports)
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The Falcons have reached the Super Bowl twice in franchise history, first in 1998, but the team is still chasing its first elusive championship.
The Giants marked their 100th season in 2024, winning four Super Bowls over the franchise’s century-long history.
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