Relax. Take a deep breath. Relax.

The Dodgers still own it. The Dodgers are still in control. The Dodgers still have the New York Mets right where they want them.

Two games at Dodger Stadium. Win one and advance to the World Series. Shohei Ohtani hot. Mookie Betts hotter. Andy Pages burns out of nowhere. A rested and nearly unbeatable bullpen for Game 6. Walker Buehler prepared to throw legendary punches when needed in Game 7.

Still done.

Yes, the Dodgers blew their first attempt at the Fall Classic on Friday night with a 12-6 loss to the Mets in Game 5 of the NLCS on Friday at Citi Field, cutting their lead to 3-2.

And yes, at one point it was a little unsettling for your loyal correspondent when a fan sitting outside the press box spotted me and held up his phone with my story from the day before as I announced that this series was over. The fan and his buddy started yelling at me to which I now give this response.

Sir, I'm doubling down.

The Dodgers will still win this series. They're still going to the World Series. It will just take a little longer than expected.

Yes, that was disappointing. But no, that's not disillusioning.

After talking about what it felt like to be on the precipice of the World Series in their pregame interviews, the Dodgers quickly descended into a loud and strange abyss that was an outlier, not a trend.

The singing, jumping fans here were already going wild as the Temptations sang the national anthem before singing in honor of Francisco Lindor's walk-up song “My Girl.” Fans became even more excited when Ohtani found himself stranded at third base in the first inning after surprisingly failing to score on a grounder to shortstop from Lindor.

“I think he just had a brain cramp and got locked in there,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of Ohtani during an in-game broadcast interview, a rare criticism of Superman.

From then on, the Dodgers' hopes sank due to sudden fatigue in pitcher Jack Flaherty's right arm. That was the strange thing about it. Five days after shutting out the Mets with two hits in seven innings to win the series opener, Flaherty had nothing to do on Friday night, his fastball was two miles per hour lower than usual, and the Mets struck him out.

Desperate to put the Dodgers on baseball's main stage next week, the kid from Burbank instead sent them back to Chavez Ravine this weekend, a nice story temporarily undone.

Shortly after Flaherty took the mound, he gave up three runs on a home run by Pete Alonso, then was bombarded for five runs on a variety of walks and hits in the third inning, and finally allowed eight runs in three innings, just awful.

“He obviously wasn’t sharp, he was fighting something,” Roberts said. “He was a little under the weather. So I don't know if that affected the speed. I'm not sure.”

Whatever the case, Flaherty is tired of doing NLCS damage, he won't be pitching in this series again, and his poor numbers don't change the basic historical math.

Of the 93 teams that took a three-games-to-one lead in a baseball series, 79 won that series, a remarkable rate of 85%.

Even though the Dodgers themselves defied those odds in 2020 against the Atlanta Braves in the NLCS, there will be no surprises here.

The biggest remaining advantage for the Dodgers lies with the players who didn't play on Friday. With Flaherty staying in the game and enduring his struggles, guys like Daniel Hudson, Blake Treinen, Michael Kopech and Evan Phillips remained rested for Game 6 on Sunday, when all will be used in a bullpen game against the Mets' Sean Manaea.

This will work. That worked. The Dodgers relievers pitched a shutout against the Padres in their biggest win of the season and could have won Game 2 in the NLCS if the Dodgers hadn't decided to add rookie starter Landon Knack to their ranks.

There will certainly be criticism from some corners that the Dodgers stumbled too early in Friday's game, that they could have pulled Flaherty after he walked two batters and allowed Starling Marte a two-run double early in the third inning to cap the Keeping Dodgers at bay with a 5-1 deficit. But knowing they had two home games left in the bag and that they might need their highly effective substitutes for both games, Roberts made the right decision.

If you don't agree with Roberts, wait for the outcome of Sunday's bullpen game before trashing him.

“And that's why at 5-1, I'm not going to use our leverage people, knowing that there's a cost to doing so and knowing that there's still more baseball to play in the series,” he said Roberts.

The Dodgers' other advantage is that Buehler will be ready for a possible Game 7 on Monday night. And he will be ready. He threw four three-hit shutout innings against the Mets in Game 3, showing much of his old fire. If the Dodgers want a pitcher on the mound at this point in a winner-take-all game, it would be Buehler.

Aside from the pitching edge, the Dodgers' hitters are also on the rise, with two homers from Andy Pages and another long ball from Mookie Betts, nine hits and a brief shortening of the 10-2 deficit.

“It was nice to see our guys fight back,” Roberts said. “We’re definitely in a really good position offensively.”

In many ways, the Dodgers are still in a really good position.

In fact, a series that should be made isn't finished yet.

But it will happen soon.