Winners, losers as Broncos crush Saints 33-10 on Thursday Night Football

Winning a baseball game in the playoffs is extremely difficult. Just ask the other 26 teams in Major League Baseball that are home watching the last four left standing. But winning a baseball game in the playoffs without your all-star first baseman, your starting second baseman, and shortstop, against the hottest pitcher in the postseason is even more difficult. Mission Impossible?Not for the arm-flailing, sunflower seed throwing, home run hitting Los Angeles Dodgers.Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts both homered in Game 4, and the Dodgers defeated the New York Mets in blowout fashion, 10-2, on Thursday night at Citi Field. Los Angeles leads the series 3-1, and are now one win away from reaching their first World Series since 2020.On paper, Game 4 looked like a mismatch for the Dodgers. No Freddie Freeman, no Gavin Lux, with Andy Pages, hitting .167 in center, Chris Taylor, who hadn’t recorded a hit this postseason at second, and Tommy Edman batting cleanup. When was the last time you saw a 5’8”, 180-pound, shortstop in the four-hole?But none of that mattered for the Dodgers on Thursday. It was simply business as usual. The business of baseball is one Dodgers’ President of Baseball Operations, Andrew Friedman, knows well. He likes to construct his roster with as much versatility and flexibility as possible. He’s got more Swiss Army knives at his disposable than the entire population of Switzerland. When the Dodgers were sputtering in mid-April, losers of seven of nine, Friedman called up Pages from Triple-A Oklahoma City to provide a spark. They went on to win their next six. At the trade deadline he acquired Edman, a player he’d always coveted, despite the fact the utility player had not played a single game all season. Once he made his season debut on Aug. 19, the Dodgers went on to win 9 of their next 11. Freidman didn’t even re-sign Kiké Hernandez until the final day of February, and he’s arguably been the Dodgers best player in the postseason. All of them contributed to the victory in Game 4, but it was the Dodgers other two former MVPs that shouldered the load. Betts and Ohtani combined to go 5-for-9 with two home runs, three walks, five RBI, and seven runs scored. Mets’ starter Jose Quintana, who hadn’t allowed an earned run in six of his last seven starts, including back-to-back shutout appearances in the postseason, lasted just two pitches before he allowed an earned run in Game 4. Ohtani greeted Ohtani with a leadoff homer into the Mets’ bullpen, his first hit of the postseason without a runner on base. SHOHEI OHTANI LEADOFF TANKWELCOME TO #NLCS GAME 4 pic.twitter.com/LrUwXWpqMo— MLB (@MLB) October 18, 2024 The Mets’ responded in the bottom half of the inning, when their hottest hitter, Mark Vientos, homered into the Dodgers bullpen to provide the punch back that New York needed. MARK VIENTOS! WE ARE TIED! pic.twitter.com/t70FJvkwf9— MLB (@MLB) October 18, 2024 Edman, who knocked in three runs total, put the Boys in Blue back in front with a two-out, RBI double in the top of the third. Hernández followed with an RBI single. Tommy Edman delivers for the @Dodgers 😤 #NLCS pic.twitter.com/YiFKbZcvkv— MLB (@MLB) October 18, 2024 After that it was all Betts ,as he brought home two with a double in the fourth, and belted his third home run of the postseason with a blast in the sixth that silenced the raucous and ruthless crowd.MOOKIE BETTS!HE'S 3-FOR-4 WITH 4 RBI TONIGHT! #NLCS pic.twitter.com/tzFS5KHPEz— MLB (@MLB) October 18, 2024 Max Muncy, who replaced Freeman at first base, remained locked in at the plate. He broke the single postseason record for reaching base safely in 12 consecutive plate appearances. Max Muncy has now reached base in 12 straight plate appearances 😤He's tied with Reggie Jackson for the most consecutive #Postseason plate appearances reaching safely. pic.twitter.com/6zdDXRWuSz— MLB (@MLB) October 18, 2024 The hero of Game 5 of the NLDS, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, delivered another solid performance, allowing just two runs on four hits, with one walk and eight strikeouts in four and one-third innings.Yoshinobu Yamamoto closes out his night by striking out Francisco Lindor 😤 #NLCS pic.twitter.com/SWtecYh1Xh— MLB (@MLB) October 18, 2024 For the second straight game, the Mets were haunted by missed opportunities. They nearly stranded the bases loaded in the third, but a manager’s challenge overturned an inning-ending double play. Instead they stranded runners at the corners. The Mets again loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the sixth, but were incapable of scratching a run across against the Dodgers bullpen. In total, the Mets were 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position and left 12 men on base. The Mets inability to get the big hit when they needed turned the boisterous sellout crowd of 43,882 into a venomous viper pit. They turned on their team, grunting, groaning, booing, and moaning until they headed for the exits in the bottom of the seventh inning. After dispatching of the pesky Padres in the NLDS, the Dodgers appear to be firing on all cylinders in the NLCS. That bodes well for Game 5, so does the fact that right-hander Jack Flaherty, who threw seven shutout innings in Game 1, is expected to start on Friday.The Dodgers have now won five straight games at Citi Field dating back to the regular season. They need just one more win here to advance to their fourth World Series in eight years. But as the Dodgers know well, the potential clinching one is always the most difficult.

Week 7 opened to a monotone one-sided affair. The Denver Broncos came into New Orleans and easily crushed the Saints 33-10, marking a successful return for head coach Sean Payton. Spencer Rattler got the start for the Saints with Derek Carr still nursing an oblique injury, but matters worsened with Chris Olave and Rashid Shaheed ruled out due to injuries before the match, with the latter done for the season.

Denver's increasingly elite defense got the job done with minimal sweat, even with CB1 Patrick Surtain II not available due to injury. The result moved Denver to 4-3 while the Saints fell to 2-5, losing five straight games after a hot start. Let's analyze the game further with winners and losers: Denver got whatever it wanted on the ground, led by RB1 Javonte Williams.

The 2021 second-rounder enjoyed his best game of the season, rushing for 88 yards on 14 carries for two touchdowns, with a long of 20. Nix added 75 rushing yards on 10 attempts with a long of 32, while Jaleel McLaughlin and Audric Estime picked up reps, too. The department finished with 225 total rushing yards on 35 carries with Williams' two touchdowns.

Jarrett Stidham brought the total down by two due to his pair of kneels to seal the game. Nothing went right for Rattler in his second straight start. The rookie had an iffy debut against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but followed it up with a worse outing, completing 25 of 35 passes for just 172 yards, no touchdowns, no picks and took six sacks.

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