NEW YORK: Shohei Ohtani, Enrique Hernandez and Max Muncy smacked home runs to power the Los Angeles Dodgers over the New York Mets 8-0 on Wednesday, grabbing the lead in their Major League Baseball playoff series.

Ohtani delivered a three-run homer just inside the right-field line in the eighth inning, Hernandez crushed a two-run blast in the sixth and Max Muncy bashed a solo homer in the ninth to spark Los Angeles.

The blowout victory gave the Dodgers a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven National League Championship Series, which continues on Thursday at New York. The series winner will face either the New York Yankees or Cleveland Guardians in the World Series.

Muncy walked three times, added two hits and scored twice, crushing his 13th career playoff homer to equal a club record. “It’s a pretty good night,” Muncy said. “The home run is obviously pretty cool but at that point it doesn’t matter. The thing that matters is getting on base for my teammates. They get a chance to drive me in.”

Dodgers batters showed patience at the plate, waiting for just the right offering for homers and key hits. “We stay within ourselves. We stay within the (strike) zone and we get good pitches to hit,” Muncy said. “When you do that all the time, you’re going to have some good results.”

Los Angeles pitcher Walker Buehler, a 30-year-old right-hander who struggled this year after 2022 ligament replacement surgery and missing the 2023 campaign, struck out six in four scoreless innings. “It has been a long road and a hard year for me,” Buehler said. “When the stakes are this big, everything else seems small. The ball was moving around pretty good for me.”

Four Dodgers kept Mets batters frustrated to the finish, completing a four-hit shutout with 13 total strikeouts. “Shutouts in the playoffs don’t come easy,” Buehler said. The Dodgers seek their fourth trip to the World Series in eight seasons and first MLB crown since 2020 while the Mets, who last reached the World Series in 2015, have not won the MLB title since 1986.

October brings the best

The Dodgers opened the scoring in the second inning when Muncy walked, took second base when Teoscar Hernandez reached on a fielder’s choice, advanced on a Gavin Lux ground out and scored on Will Smith’s infield single.

Tommy Edman followed with a sacrifice fly to bring in Teoscar Hernandez from third for a 2-0 Dodgers lead. Buehler struck out Mets leadoff hitter Francisco Lindor to escape a bases-loaded jam in the second inning. Mets pitcher Luis Severino escaped his own bases-loaded situation in the third when Lux grounded out to end the threat. But the Dodgers doubled the lead in the sixth when Edman singled and 33-year-old Puerto Rican outfielder Enrique Hernandez blasted the ball over the centerfield wall for his 15th career playoff homer.

“I love playing in October,” he said. “It just brings out the best in me.” Los Angeles struck again in the eighth when Will Smith walked, Enrique Hernandez singled and Ohtani smashed the ball for a homer that stood up after a video review challenge and made the LA lead 7-0. Muncy added his solo homer in the ninth and Ben Casparius retired the last three Mets batters in the ninth. — AFP