The Mets were the biggest surprise to make the nine-team semifinal, but their stunning run ended when the LA Dodgers erupted, sending 13 batters to the plate in the fifth inning to take a 7-0 lead.
Ironically, neither team had a hit through the first four innings before the explosion.
The Mets were eliminated with the 8-3 loss after dropping the opener 5-1. At 0-2, the Mets cannot catch the Dodgers even if they win their last two games and the Dodgers lose their final game against the Red Sox to fall to 3-1.
If the Red Sox do win at LA to stop the Dodgers' overall 7-0 record in this Statis-Pro season, then Boston would still be very much alive. The Red Sox would also need to beat the Mets twice to tie the Dodgers at 3-1. If they did, they could take the title because we made head-to-head run differential the semifinal tiebreaker. So, if Boston beats the Dodgers by more than one run, it would give the Red Sox the tiebreaker since they lost the other game to the Dodgers by only a 2-1 score.
If the Red Sox did win their last 3 but only beating the Dodgers by 1, then they would need to beat the Mets by a combined 10 runs, or beat them by 9 for a one game playoff with the Dodgers.
So the Dodgers can wrap it up with a win, but if they lose, the waiting game begins and they would need to root for the Mets to win one of two.
Despite being eliminated, the Mets had the satisfaction of their shocking elimination of the Yankees in the 1st pool. In this game, they also tagged former Met Edwin Díaz for two runs in the ninth, cutting the Dodgers' lead from 8-1 to the 8-3 final.
In this pool format, we use a team's best relievers in the second game against an opponent if they were not needed in the first game because it's essentially "use them or lose them." A reliever has to sit out one of the two games during each home-and-home series.
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