Mark Vientos channeled his inner Michael Jordan.
With runners on second and third base in the second inning — and the Mets leading 2-0 at the time — the Dodgers opted to intentionally walk Francisco Lindor in order to face Vientos.
Vientos promptly hit an emphatic grand slam to give his team a 6-0 lead in the second inning of their 7-3 win over the Dodgers in Game 2 of the NLCS at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.
“To be honest with you, I take it personal,” Vientos said in his on-field interview after the game. “I was like ‘OK, you want me up to the plate? I’m gonna try to drive in a run.’ Honestly, I was trying to simplify the game, I wasn’t trying to do too much.
“But I did take it personal, that they walked Lindor for the bases loaded for me.”
Vientos was seemingly giving a nod to Jordan’s famous comments he repeated in his documentary, “The Last Dance,” when he constantly claimed he took slights against him personally.
“I was just trying to simplify the game,” Vientos said. “I was trying to put a ball in the gap or just get a walk, honestly. I wasn’t trying to swing at anything in the dirt. Today, they were throwing me a lot of pitches down and away and I was trying to see them up [in the strike zone].”
Vientos lost the starting third base job to Brett Baty coming out of spring training but has since completely cemented his claim on the position.
He hit .266/.322/.516 this year with 27 homers, 71 RBIs and an .837 OPS in the regular season.
Sean Manaea pitched five innings and gave up three runs en route to the Mets’ win.
“I think we’re in a great spot,’ Vientos said. “I like the momentum we got. I like the energy we brought in this day game. We gotta keep it going.”
