Carlos Mendoza is about to make the same mistake that led to a shutout loss in Game 3

Ahead of Game 3 of their NLCS against the Los Angeles Dodgers, we had some questions for New York Mets manager Carlos Mendoza about his batting order. Benching the red-hot Jesse Winker for fading veteran JD Martinez — with a right-handed pitcher on the mound, no less — didn't seem to make a ton of sense, and Mendoza's explanation (vague gestures toward platoon splits, an unreliable indicator at best over such a small sample) only made things worse. And then the Mets went out and got blanked by Walker Buehler and Co. in an 8-0 loss, and it seemed like all of those fears were fully justified.

Oh well; that was just one game, and a rare misstep for Mendoza during what's otherwise been a spectacular postseason run to date. Surely he would learn from what happened in Game 3 and adjust ahead of a must-win Game 4 at Citi Field on Thursday night, right? It's not like he'd just double down with the exact same lineup against another righty in Yoshinobu Yamamoto, would he?

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Mets NLCS Game 4 lineup: JD Martinez, Jose Iglesias starting again

We have some bad news Mets fans: Mendoza would, and in fact he has. Not only is Martinez once again in the lineup over Winker, but the ice-cold Jose Iglesias is starting at second base over Jeff McNeil while light-hitting Harrison Bader draws a start in center field. Combined with Francisco Alvarez's continued struggles, the result is one of the weakest — on paper, at least — Mets lineups we've seen in some time.

Of course, we don't have all the information that Mendoza does, and there could be other factors at play here. Winker and McNeil have both been dealing with injuries, and it's possible that neither of them are healthy enough to start and Mendoza is just trying to protect his players. From here, though, it's tough to figure out what the plan is: Mendoza again cited Yamamoto's platoon splits as an explanation for this lineup, but again, in such a small sample size those numbers are basically meaningless. What matters much more is everything from pitch shape to, you know, who's actually swinging the bat well at the moment. That's certainly not Martinez, Iglesias, Bader or Alvarez, and if the Mets fail to provide starter Jose Quintana with run support in another loss, expect plenty of criticism for the manager.