Plaschke: Done deal! Dodgers are a lock to finish off Mets and advance to World Series

In the heart of election season, Los Angeles’ favorite candidate fittingly just pushed their opponent past the breaking point.

I’m calling the National League…for the Dodgers.

I’m calling a spot in the World Series…to the Dodgers.

The polling is not yet complete, but it’s happening, a done deal, a mortal lock, prepare for tickets, plan for parties, spread the word, the Dodgers are going to advance to their fourth World Series in eight seasons, it’s only a matter of time.

Guaranteed.

After a 10-2 victory over the New York Mets in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series at Citi Field Thursday night, the Dodgers owned a three-games-to-one lead that is essentially insurmountable.

It’s over. The Mets are as done as their roasted pitching. They are as finished as their fleeing fan base. They probably shouldn’t have been here in the first place, and soon they’ll be gone, in the Dodgers rear view mirror along with the San Diego Padres, postseason victims of a very different postseason Dodger team.

Coming soon, the World Series beckons, whether it is clinched Friday night here in Game 5 or this weekend at Dodger Stadium, it’s happening, the Dodgers are winning one more game against a Mets team that has already quit.

All that’s left is the champagne and kookiness, and here’s guessing that will occur Friday with ace Jack Flaherty on the mound and visions of impending greatness in the air.

The Dodgers will not only advance to the World Series beginning next week, but they should be heavy favorites to win it against either the inferior New York Yankees or outmanned Cleveland Indians.

There hasn’t been a Dodger team this complete since 2017, and they would have won that World Series if the Houston Astros had not cheated, so hide all the trash cans and let’s go.

How good are these Dodgers? They dominated Thursday night with essentially their “B” team, Freddie Freeman and Gavin Lux out with injuries, Chris Taylor playing second base, Tommy Edman batting cleanup.

They won with a second consecutive impressive performance by NLDS-clincher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, with Shohei Ohtani being Shoehei Othani, and with everybody else juking and jabbing and creating like the Dodgers do.

And, oh yeah, Max Muncy walked three times and singled to extend his on-base streak to a single-postseason-record 12 consecutive plate appearances.

Think about it. This Muncy dude is setting records and he is not even one of the four best hitters on the team.

The main man is, of course, Ohtani, who set the tone just two pitches into this game, when he broke out of his peculiar recent slump with his first hit in 22 at-bats with the bases empty — and man, what a breakout. It was a 422-foot home run over the right-center field fence. The ball officially traveled 118 mph but, like most of his big hits, it looked like it went 1,000 mph.

After the Mets’ briefly tied the game in the bottom of the first with a home run from Mark Vientos — hey, at least they scored! — the Dodgers soon crafted a way to break that deadlock forever.

It was accomplished in the third inning by an unlikely hero and an expected one. Edman, batting cleanup for only the third time this season, scored a previously walked Ohtani with a double to left. Then Kike Hernandez, who has been doing this stuff all October, singled off the glove of diving shortstop Lindor for another run.

Think about something else. The Dodgers spent more than $1 billion this offseason in signing talent yet two guys who fueled their fire in one of the biggest games of the season Thursday were an underrated trade deadline acquisition and a spring-training signing.

Especially impressive is Edman, who could quietly steal the NLCS MVP award as he is hitting .412 with seven RBI.

After spending his career in St. Louis, Edman has clearly embraced the Dodgers culture.

“I think the attention to detail is just really good,” he said. “We’re always trying to find an edge. Everybody does their homework. Everybody’s prepared for certain situations that come up.”

He added, “I think the other thing that separates this team is just the experience, and I think everybody just has a very calm and cool demeanor. The moment doesn’t really get too big for anybody. I think just having a lot of guys who have been there in big moments definitely helps out to be able to perform when those situations arise.”

Those situations have arisen plenty in these first four games and, while the Dodgers have indeed showed up big, the Mets have shrunk.

Trailing early Thursday, the Mets never really fought back. They loaded the bases with less than two out in two of the first six innings, but could only scrape one run out of it, including three Mets hitters retired by Evan Phillips and Blake Treinen to strand three in the sixth.

As the Dodgers piled on the runs – again – the Mets increasingly ran out of the batter’s box with quick swings and offered only minor mound resistance with haphazard pitching.

In the first four games of this series, the Dodgers have outscored the Mets 30-9, and it hasn’t felt that close.

With the quick domination leading to several days off before the Series, the Dodgers will have the advantage of getting healthier, namely Freeman. On Thursday he was benched to rest his badly sprained ankle, which is obviously not a good sign. Freeman had limped his way through seven of eight postseason games, but the bad ankle has seemingly robbed him of his power, as he had just seven singles in 27 at-bats.

Manager Dave Roberts acknowledged it was a weird phone call.

“He asked me if he was being benched,” said Roberts. “That’s one thing. He doesn’t offer up days off.”

Roberts noted that, with Freeman requiring as many as four hours a day for treatment, the veteran could use the rest.

“We all know…how much he’s going through to stay on the field,” said Roberts. “So I think that he understood that it’s for his best interests to kind of not start tonight’s game.”

Freeman will undoubtedly be ready for the World Series, which the Dodgers will undoubtedly reach, any day now, sooner than later.

Guaranteed.