Before the sun had even set in Queens on Friday night, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts faced a dilemma.

It was the third inning of Game 5 of the National League Championship Series. His club faced an early, but hardly insurmountable, two-run deficit. And with starting pitcher Jack Flaherty lacking both control and fastball speed, Roberts had three difficult options in front of him.

1. Stick with Flaherty and hope he can settle in.

2. Call in a lower-leverage arm like Brent Honeywell or Landon Knack (or at least let them warm up if things get dire) and hope they can maintain the deficit.

3. Call for a high-leverage reliever immediately and risk wasting valuable balls with a likely bullpen game coming up in Game 6.

If a team lacks reliable starting pitching in the playoffs, this could be a poor manager’s choice.

“It’s not always fun when you go through that,” Roberts said. “Definitely from any chair. Definitely my chair.”

Just like in the Dodgers’ Game 2 loss, Roberts chose the conservative route. He stayed in his chair and left Flaherty in the game. Then he watched in horror at what happened next.

In a six-batter sequence, the Mets excelled with a five-run rally, opening a seven-run lead that they built all the way down the stretch for a 12-6 win.

“All I have to do is be average,” a frustrated Flaherty said afterward, “and we’re in this game.”

On a night when the Dodgers could have finished the NLCS and secured a spot in next week’s World Series, they let this best-of-seven return to Los Angeles.

The Dodgers still have a chance to reach the Fall Classic. They lead the series 3-2 and need just one more win and two tries at home to clinch the victory.

However, the plastic sheeting attached to the ceiling of the visiting clubhouse at Citi Field remained rolled up Friday night. The Dodgers came and went with little celebration.

It was clear from the start of Friday’s game that Flaherty lacked skill. In a three-run first inning, his fastball was around 91 mph, well below his season average of 93.3 mph. His command wasn’t there either, resulting in two walks in one inning, punctuated by a three-run blast from Pete Alonso.

“He clearly wasn’t sharp,” Roberts said, noting that Flaherty had been “a little under the weather” this week; not the only one in a run-down Dodgers clubhouse.

“I feel like it was the first time in a long time that I let the game speed up a little bit,” Flaherty added. “I didn’t make the adjustments I should have made in the game after the first inning when they gave me a couple good hits.”

Flaherty made it through the second inning unscathed, despite a leadoff double from Francisco Alvarez and two near-homers from Francisco Lindor later (one that went just to foul, the other that died at the warning line). Meanwhile, the Dodgers got a runback against Mets starter David Peterson to make it 3-1 in the third.

So Roberts was faced with his fateful decision.

Dodgers starting pitcher Jack Flaherty delivers in the second inning of a 12-6 loss to the New York Mets in Game 5 of the NLCS on Friday.

(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

Since the Dodgers acquired Flaherty at the trade deadline, the veteran right-hander has been their de facto — or at least by default — their ace.

That’s not what the Dodgers envisioned earlier this season, back when they thought Tyler Glasnow (who suffered a season-ending elbow injury) and Yoshinobu Yamamoto (who was returning just weeks after a three-month shoulder injury). playoffs and is therefore unlikely). (who must pitch again in this series after the start of Game 4) could take over their rotation.

But it’s still the situation they were in.

And since Roberts realized he only had “five leverage innings” from the core of his bullpen, he decided to roll the dice and try to get Flaherty deeper into the game.

“You kind of have to be consistent with how you use your pitchers,” Roberts said. “Because ultimately it’s about winning four games in a seven-game series.”

Flaherty began the third inning with two quick hits to Alonso, but then missed the zone four times in a row for a leadoff walk. Four more straight balls to Jesse Winker put another runner on base and brought pitching coach Mark Prior out of the dugout.

Shohei Ohtani reacts after striking out in the fifth inning against the Mets in NLCS Game 5 on Thursday.

(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

In the bullpen, left-hander Anthony Banda was starting to warm up.

Before the Dodgers could get to him, however, the inning spiraled out of control.

Starling Marte hit a double down the stretch to drive home two runs. Alvarez, Lindor and Brandon Nimmo recorded three more RBIs on two-out hits.

In the middle of it all, Banda sat down again. Instead of being aggressive with his all-important bullpen — which will now play a crucial role in whatever remains in this series — Roberts had no choice but to let Flaherty carry him.

“At 5-1, I’m not going to use our leverage guys,” Roberts said, “knowing that there’s a cost on the back end and knowing that there’s more baseball to play in the series .”

The Dodgers haven’t completely turned around. Andy Pages hit two home runs in the fourth (a solo shot) and fifth (a three-run blast) to keep the Dodgers within striking distance. Mookie Betts then went wide in the sixth to increase the score to 10-6.

But the Dodgers missed other opportunities along the way, most notably a bases-loaded, inning-ending strikeout by Freddie Freeman in the fourth inning (part of an 0-for-5 performance that could prompt Roberts to consider his spot in the lineup for Game 6 to think about). , as he remains limited by a sprained ankle).

And any traction they did gain was nullified by Honeywell, who saved the rest of the bullpen with 4⅔ valiant innings of relief but gave up four comeback-suppressing insurance runs along the way.

“We can’t cry, it is what it is,” Betts said. “I need to turn the page and prepare for the next page.”

That means not only preparing for a likely bullpen game in Game 6, but also addressing some of the other troubling mistakes that plagued the Dodgers on Friday night.

Shohei Ohtani had a “brain cramp” on the bases in the first inning, Roberts told the Fox broadcast, when he failed to score from third on a Teoscar Hernández ground ball.

Betts looked uncharacteristically shaky in right field, including a balled ball that allowed Alvarez to score from the start on a double-turn triple from Lindor.

The lineup also went just 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position, a marked change from the .329 batting average they had in such spots earlier in the evening this postseason.

The Mets, meanwhile, played their best game of the series, scoring 14 hits without a single strikeout.

“They did better today,” said Hernández, who had seven walks but no hits in 18 at-bats this series. “That’s the game. You have to keep going.”

The Dodgers still spoke confidently about their position in the postgame clubhouse.

When Max Muncy was asked if he would have played Games 6 and 7 of an NLCS at home in Dodger Stadium earlier in the season, he replied bluntly: “Uh, yeah. Absolutely.”

But the chance to end the series evaporated with five runs in the third inning Friday – when Roberts opted to rest his bullpen rather than go for a low-probability come-from-behind victory.

“It’s tough,” Roberts said. “But if you can think through the game like I do… I think those are bets I have to make.”