LOS ANGELES – You probably didn’t expect the New York Mets to go down as easily as they did in Game 1.

A day after the Dodgers beat the Mets by nine runs, Grimace’s favorite team evened the National League Championship Series by showing what has helped them go from a terrible start to an electrifying finish this season.

“We get punched in the face and we continue to find ways to get back up,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said after their 7-3 win in Game 2 on Monday afternoon. “And it will continue to be that way.”

In case you missed the rollercoaster ride of their season, the Mets got off to a terrible start, falling to 11 games under .500. They turned their season around with a seven-game winning streak – starting with the first throw of McDonald’s legendary purple monster in June. This began a phase in which the Mets achieved the best record in the majors during this period at 60:36.

Since then, they’ve defeated two of the National League’s division winners – the Milwaukee Brewers and the Philadelphia Phillies – in the playoffs, and now they’ve set their sights on the third.

Things weren’t looking so good when the Dodgers beat the Mets 9-0 in the opener, extending their scoreless innings streak to 33.

This streak didn’t even last a beat until the second game.

Francisco Lindor – the likely runner-up to Shohei Ohtani for NL MVP – opened the game with a home run.

Lindor had hit a go-ahead home run in the game that sent the Mets into the playoffs, and he also hit a grand slam to give the Mets the lead in the deciding divisional game against the Phillies.

Lindor was so well in the Mets’ grasp that no one batted an eyelid when the Dodgers intentionally sent him to the bases in the second inning.

Third baseman Mark Vientos, who was on deck, certainly knows intellectually that pitching to him instead of Lindor is the right baseball move.

Despite it …

“Of course I took it personally,” Vientos said. “I definitely want to be up there for this shot. I want you to accompany Lindor in this situation and take me there. And at that point I just thought, let me simplify the game, just get a run in, a walk – whatever I can do to add another run to the score. And luckily I hit a bomb there and it went over the fence.”

Vientos hit a grand slam that extended the Mets’ lead to 6-0.

Although they didn’t finish the blowout with the same efficiency as the Dodgers the night before – the Mets’ defense was shaky and they went for eight – they still got the win.

Now the teams will travel across the country and play three straight games at Citi Field, where Mets fans just cheered their team to two straight wins to defeat the Phillies.