Dodgers vs Mets: which NL team is better?
The Dodgers and Mets will duke it out for first place in the National League for the remainder of the MLB regular season.
The Los Angeles Dodgers (86-37) and the New York Mets (79-46) sit atop the MLB National League with just over a month to go before the end of the regular season, but which team is better and who will come out on top in the race for the World Series?
Dodgers vs Mets: batting
The Dodgers have offensive power in their favor as the ninth-highest scorers in the Major Leagues with 664 runs to date this season. Right fielder Mookie Betts leads the Dodgers with 94. The Mets have so far managed homers with shortstop Francisco Lindor leading the way with 80.
The problem for the Dodgers arises when they play games with extra innings. Dave Roberts’ team is 2-6 in games that go beyond the regulation nine innings while Buck Showalter’s team is 9-2.
In terms of home runs, the Dodgers are currently the third best team in the NL with 163 while the New Yorkers are eighth with 127. Betts also leads the Dodgers in this statistic with 27 homers, but his total falls short of Pete Alonso’s tally of 31.
Dodgers vs Mets: pitching
Carlos Carrasco, Chris Bassit, Taijuan Walker, Max Scherzer and Davis Peterson are the Mets’ starting rotation and among them Scherzer has the best ERA at 2.33. Among the closers, the most prominent is Edwin Díaz, with 28 saves.
On the Dodgers’ side, the starting rotation will be more limited for the rest of the season due to Walker Buehler’s injury. Julio Urías has the most starts (24) for the Dodgers but Tony Gonsolin has engineered the highest number of wins (16) and has the lowest ERA (2.10) among Dodgers pitchers with 15 or more starts. Craig Kimbrel has done a good job in saves with 21 of 25 chances.