Mets-Dodgers series has gotten more chippy as pressure rises

LOS ANGELES — Is the chippiness between the Mets and Dodgers that crept up Friday finished?

“We’ll see,” Francisco Alvarez said Saturday during a workout at Dodger Stadium. “We’ll see what’s the next step.”

Alvarez was in the middle of one incident during Game 5.

Los Angeles’ Andy Pages drilled a fourth-inning home run that trimmed the Mets lead to 8-2, and Pages watched it go.

He walked four steps, flipped his bat and then began a slow trot around the bases.

By the time he crossed home plate, Alvarez was waiting for him.

“I just said, ‘Run the bases,’ ” Alvarez recalled ahead of Sunday’s Game 6.

Pages had a few words for Alvarez in response and put his finger to his lips to shush Alvarez.

David Peterson also appeared to have some words for Max Muncy when the two converged at first base on a groundout in the fourth inning. As often happens when two teams play each other repeatedly with these kinds of stakes, the intensity has ratcheted up.

“The last thing you want to do is try to create something unnecessary on the field,” manager Carlos Mendoza said Saturday, speaking generally of the contentiousness. “They’re competing. We know everything is do-or-die type deal. And they’re competitors. And sometimes players will show their emotions.

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“But the last thing you want to do is wake up a team. That’s not who we are. We’re going to continue to play our game, and we’re not here to try and create anything.”

It is also possible that the scrappiness awoke Alvarez, who plays with emotion. After a rough start to his postseason — a .167 average and .377 OPS through the first 11 games — the 22-year-old catcher went 3-for-4 with a double and RBI single Friday.

Does he enjoy this kind of heat-of-the-moment, back-and-forth with another team?

“I love that,” Alvarez said.