For the first time since 2021, the Dodgers defeated a division opponent and advanced to the NLCS, where they will face the Mets in the playoffs for the first time since 2015.

Whether through the power of McDonald's mascot Grimace or through the power of José Iglesias' song “OMG,” which was a running anthem for the team, the Mets stunned the baseball world by defeating their division rival Phillies for their first trip to the NLCS in nine years. They will face a Dodgers team that fought tooth and nail against the Padres.

The Dodgers won the season series against the Mets and won four of six games against New York, including a three-game win at Citi Field in late May. This Mets team is no longer the same as when the Dodgers last played them, and used all the magic they could to launch an unpredictable playoff run after numerous late-game comebacks in both the regular season and the postseason.

So if the Dodgers, a team that proved the doubters wrong and worked its way to an NLCS appearance, want to advance to their first World Series since 2020, the Dodgers must do three things to overwhelm New York.

Monsters: The Story of Kiké and Teoscar Hernández

Kiké Hernández opened the NLCS with 14 postseason home runs, eighth-most among active players. Teoscar Hernández hit his first two Dodger home runs of the season; a grand slam to bring the Dodgers to a one-run deficit in Game 3 and the final run in a dominant Game 5 to win the series against San Diego.

Had Miguel Rojas not suffered a nasty groin injury, Kiké Hernández might have rarely been on the field for a Dodgers team trying to turn around fortunes in October. Hernández continued his strong second half in the playoffs, with his solo home run off former teammate Yu Darvish being the winning run that helped the Dodgers advance to the NLCS.

Teoscar Hernández was a real X-factor for the Dodgers during the regular season, filling in well at times for the injured Freddie Freeman in the three holes of the Dodgers lineup. Over the course of five games against San Diego, Teoscar slashed .333/.400/.667 with a team-high two home runs and seven RBIs, while also recording a hit in each game.

The Dodgers' 1-2-3 hitters have done their part to get the Dodgers' offense going, with Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts hitting three home runs in the first four games, but they alone can't take the Dodgers to the World Series transport. As demonstrated in the series-clinching finale over San Diego, the Dodgers found ways to climb the scoreboard without relying on the three MVPs at the top.

Start of pitching turnaround

Aside from Yoshinobu Yamamoto's five shutout innings in Game 5, the Dodgers' rotation collapsed in the first three games of the NLDS. Yamamoto gave up five earned runs over three innings in Game 1, and although Jack Flaherty and Walker Buehler combined for ten innings in Games 2 and 3, they allowed a total of nine earned runs, including a six-run second inning by San Diego Buehler in game 3.

When you compare the Dodgers' injury-plagued starting rotation to that of the Mets, New York has proven they can go at least five innings (with the exception of the straight-backed Koda Senga starting Game 1) while limiting the damage against some of the better ones National League lineups. Los Angeles, however, wasn't so lucky.

There is a silver lining to the pitching issues the Dodgers faced this October.

First off, Jack Flaherty will start the series for the Dodgers, and he has been a workhorse in the regular season, pitching at least five innings in nine of his 10 starts since being acquired from the Tigers. The only caveat is his limited experience against New York, where he allowed four runs in 5⅓ innings against them as a member of the Cardinals in 2019.

Walker Buehler has been a mixed bag in five career starts against the Mets, posting a 10-strikeout gem in seven one-run innings in 2021, but also allowing five earned runs in just 2⅓ in his last start against New York in 2022 innings. What Buehler did in his Game 3 start was he showed his resilience after a disastrous six-run innings in which he pitched three shutout innings while allowing the Dodgers' offense to stay in the contest.

And then there's Yamamoto's gem in Game 5, which was the first time he silenced the San Diego offense.

The trio of Flaherty, Buehler and Yamamoto have the ability to break into the middle innings, although success was mixed in those 15 innings. If the Dodgers have any intention of advancing, they'll need to rely on this trio to attack the strike zone early, make the pitch make contact rather than flirt with finesse, and they'll need to ensure the confidence of Dave Roberts to power through the third pitch to come time around the Mets lineup.

A huge sigh of relief

There has been one constant for the Dodgers so far; Their bullpen was completely broken.

After Game 2 of the NLDS, in which the bullpen allowed the Padres six runs and four home runs, the bullpen did not allow a run in 16 innings. The Dodgers opted for a shutout bullpen game before Game 4, and it worked perfectly as eight different teams came together for a shutout performance to even the series. After Yamamoto's five shutout innings, Evan Phillips, Alex Vesia, Michael Kopech and Blake Treinen combined to pitch four shutout innings en route to the Dodgers' first postseason series win in three years.

If there's one thing the Dodgers know about the Mets, it's that they're not going down without a fight, as the Mets have won 44 straight games, leading all of baseball. Against some of the best relievers in baseball, including the Brewers' Devin Williams, the Mets earned comeback victories in Game 3 of the NL Wild Card Series. They took a late lead against the Phillies in Game 1, erased a two-run deficit in the ninth inning of Game 2, and a grand slam by Francisco Lindor in the sixth inning of Game 4 sealed the deal for New York.

The Dodgers had to limit the early offense against the Padres, a team that scored 14 runs in the first three innings in the first three games of the series. Now the Dodgers face a team that thrives on late-game deficits, and the bullpen needs to continue the same success it has had since Game 3.

The Dodgers and Mets have had their fair share of postseason matchups, and the two teams are facing each other in the NLCS for the first time since 1988, which ultimately ended in a World Series run for the Dodgers.

This is not the same Mets team that the Dodgers faced earlier in the season, as the Mets have posted a 67-40 record since their Finals loss to Los Angeles. The Mets have already shown that they can take on the toughest opponents in the league, and the Dodgers need to control the magic that helped the Mets get to where they currently are.

The Dodgers are just four wins away from their first World Series appearance since winning outright in 2020, and if they want to return to the promised land, the team's offense cannot rely on the top third of the lineup, the starting lineup The rotation needs to get deeper into games and the bullpen needs to carry its momentum from the previous series.