The Dodgers overtake the Mets in Game 4 to take a 3-1 lead in the NLCS

NEW YORK – Shohei Ohtani hit a leadoff home run and scored four times, Mookie Betts also went deep and drove in four runs, and the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the New York Mets 10-2 on Thursday night to take a lead in their game 3-1 one-sided National League Championship Series.

Among his four hits, Betts had a two-run home run and a two-run double. Max Muncy extended his streak of reaching base safely to 12 plate appearances, a postseason record, and the Dodgers came within one win of their 25th pennant, the most in NL history.

The Dodgers won Game 1 9-0 and Game 3 8-0 in Game 3. They are only the second team to have three wins by eight or more runs in a single postseason series. The New York Yankees did this in the 1960 World Series, which they lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates on Bill Mazeroski's walk-off home run in the ninth inning of Game 7.

Game 5 of this series takes place on Friday at Citi Field, with Jack Flaherty expected to pitch for Los Angeles with a chance to take his hometown team to the World Series.

New York had not decided on a projected starter, but it would likely be Kodai Senga or David Peterson.

Surprising cleanup batter Tommy Edman had three RBIs, including a tiebreaking double against starter Jose Quintana with two outs in the third inning. Kiké Hernández followed with an RBI single that made it 3-1.

“It’s ridiculous,” Edman told Fox after the game when asked about the Dodgers’ offense. “We have so much talent. But not only that, we have a lot of people who work hard. Great resilience. We had a few lulls in the second half of the year – relative lulls by our standards, but they don't last long. We just come back and fight no matter how we feel.

Betts opened the game by hitting reliever Jose Buttó with a two-run double in the fourth and then right-hander Phil Maton with a two-run home run in the sixth.

Both big hits were followed by walks to Ohtani, and Betts missed a huge punch between second and third as he rounded the bases after his third home run of these playoffs.

Betts became the third Dodgers player with four hits and four RBI in an NLCS game, joining Steve Garvey in Game 4 of the 1974 NLCS and Chris Taylor in Game 6 of the 2021 NLCS.

Mark Vientos provided a rare highlight for New York when he hit his fourth postseason home run in the first inning against $325 million rookie Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

But the Mets, who were 14-2 in their last 16 games at Citi Field when they returned Wednesday, were eliminated on their own turf for the second straight game.

New York was outscored 30-9 in the series, including 9-0 in the opener and 8-0 in Game 3. The Dodgers' plus-21 run differential is the most by a team in the first four games of a series has postseason history.

“We’re just playing our game,” Muncy told Fox after the game. “We play Dodger baseball. We did that very well in the regular season and we stay within ourselves. We don't try to put too much on the plate. We don't try to chase things around.” . We stay within the zone and it brings us good results.”

The Mets' latest flop after a thrilling comeback that stretched well into October silenced a sellout crowd of 43,882 and left Citi Field eerily quiet in the late innings – and almost as empty as it was in April.

Information from ESPN Research and The Associated Press was used in this report.