Mark

Vientos

Vientos took Ryan Brasier deep in the fourth inning to make it a 6-3 game. It was the fifth homer of the postseason, but unfortunately for the Mets the last with Los Angeles winning the series 4-2. Vientos had a very strong regular season, but was at a different level this October with a slash of .327/.362/.636. Vientos should be a strong fantasy option for 2025 and beyond.

Vientos’ home run was his fourth of the playoffs. He hit a solo shot off Yoshinobu Yamamoto in the first inning. Vientos now has 12 RBI in the postseason. The Mets have fallen behind 3-1 in the series, but Vientos has done all he can to help the team. He’s hitting .370 with a 1.070 OPS in October.

The slam came in a 2-0 game after the Mets walked Francisco Lindor with first base open and two outs in the second. To be fair, Lindor did homer in the first. That was off opener Ryan Brasier, though, and the Dodgers had Landon Knack in the game at that point. Lindor may have a postseason advantage over Vientos with all of his experience, but the choice was between two guys with very similar regular-season numbers, and all margin for error was gone with the bases loaded, whereas there would have been some with the base open working to Lindor. After the homer, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts pretty much gave up on winning this one, saving all of his best relievers for Wednesday’s Game 3. Walker Buehler and Luis Severino are the scheduled starters then.

Vientos has been the Mets’ best hitter in the playoffs. He added another two hits against the Phillies in Game 3 Tuesday. The 24-year-old third baseman is hitting .417 with a 1.148 OPS and seven RBI in 24 at-bats this postseason.

After doubling to right in the first inning, Vientos went the other way again in the third with a runner on to give the Mets a 2-0 lead. Six innings later, he tied the game in the ninth with a two-run blast to left off Matt Strahm at 6-6. The 24-year-old is off to a nice start to the postseason with seven RBI in the first five games of the playoffs, and he should continue to hit near the top of the lineup as long as New York is alive.

Vientos came up huge with an RBI single off Jeff Hoffman in the eighth inning to tie the game at 1-1. The 24-year-old hasn’t shown much power in the first four games of the postseason with no extra-base hits, but he has been able to hit .313 in that timeframe.

After taking a seat on Wednesday with J.D. Martinez starting at DH, it will be Winker back in the lineup and hitting sixth on Thursday against Tobias Myers and the Brewers. The rest of the lineup remains the same but Jose Iglesias will move to fifth in the order with Mark Vientos hitting second and Brandon Nimmo hitting third.

The Mets broke the game open with a five-run fifth inning and Vientos was in the middle of it. He broke a 4-4 tie with a two-run single and scored on an RBI single by J.D. Martinez. Vientos wasn’t even the Mets’ starting third baseman to begin the season, but took the job and ran with it in midseason. Mets manager Carlos Mendoza is developing a habit of removing Vientos late in games for defense. On Tuesday, Luisangel Acuna came into the game for Vientos and went to second base with Jose Iglesias sliding over to third base.

Vientos briefly gave the Mets life with his third inning two-run homer to cut the Brewers’ lead to 5-2. Yet, the Mets wouldn’t challenge again until the eighth and never got this game closer than three runs. Alas, Vientos is putting the finishing touches on an excellent season with 27 homers and an .853 OPS in 108 games. It will be fascinating to see where his ADP winds up in drafts this winter.

Vientos blasted a solo homer off Spencer Schwellenbach in the seventh inning to give the Mets their first run of the night. It was the 26th homer of the season for Vientos, who has broken out in a big way after struggling at the dish last season. Vientos has now hit safely in four of his last six games and has five homers in the month of September.