The Mets' bigger problem is what's happening below the big-league roster. Mark Vientos is out with a fractured hand, Clay Holmes is working back from a fractured fibula and now looks like a trade chip more than a rotation piece, and owner Steve Cohen has all but confirmed the Mets are sellers before the deadline. Nobody in that clubhouse is pretending this is a playoff push.
The Dodgers have their own injury list — Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, Edwin Diaz and Will Smith are all still on the shelf — but it hasn't slowed them down. They've won 3 of their last 5, including a wild 9-5 win over Philadelphia last time out, and Yamamoto has been about as steady as a starter gets, carrying a 2.78 ERA into a start where he needed just 102 pitches to finish off the Yankees with 7 strikeouts and zero walks.
Even without a healthy bullpen behind him — Diaz is still working back from elbow surgery and Treinen, Graterol and Casparius are all shut down for various stretches — the Dodgers have enough pitching and lineup depth to lean on their rotation deep into games, which plays right into a matchup against a Mets team that's rebuilding around one rookie arm and not much margin for error behind him. McLean's stuff is real, but asking a rookie to out-duel the Cy Young frontrunner while his own bullpen and lineup are stretched thin is a tall order.
For the Mets, this series is really about auditioning pieces and building toward next year rather than stealing a game from a contender. For the Dodgers, it's a chance to keep stacking wins on the road before Diaz rejoins the bullpen and the roster gets whole again heading into the stretch run.