“Nobody has gone 11-0 in the postseason,” Mookie Betts said. “All the teams, four teams left, they’re all good and you’re not just going to run through everybody in the postseason. I’ve never seen it and I’d imagine you’ll never see anybody do anything like that.

“You expect it to be a long series. They’re good. They’re not a bad baseball team. They didn’t make it here by luck. It’s going to be a dogfight. I’m going to give them their credit. They are a good baseball team. But we are, too. It’s going to be a long series. We expect it to be a long, tough series.”

The Dodgers’ postseason record-tying streak of 33 consecutive scoreless innings barely survived the National Anthem on Monday. Francisco Lindor hit a leadoff home run off of Dodgers’ “opener” Ryan Brasier.

The Dodgers have had to resort to bullpen games in both rounds of the postseason because they have just three healthy starting pitchers — who they trust.

Rookie right-hander Landon Knack ended the season in the Dodgers’ starting rotation. But they are not willing to start him in the postseason. Instead, Roberts gave him the ball in the second inning, hoping for Knack to absorb a few innings in a bulk role.

“It was the plan to go to him and take down the most outs today,” Roberts said after the game, echoing what he said pregame.

“I think today what was different (from the bullpen game against the Padres) was we don’t have (Alex) Vesia (due to an injury). (Daniel) Hudson was down (after pitching in Game 1). And that’s probably the biggest kind of impetus for having — or knowing you’re going to have to get some outs from Knack or you just are not going to finish the game.”

It was the first big mistake of the postseason for Roberts, who has had to pick his way through a minefield of pitching decisions.

Knack gave up a single, a walk and a double in the first four batters he faced. With two outs, the Dodgers intentionally walked Lindor to load the bases. Knack got ahead of the next hitter, Mark Vientos, 1-and-2, but Vientos fought his way back into the count. On the ninth pitch of the at-bat, Knack left a fastball over the heart of the plate and Vientos lined it into the right field pavilion for a grand slam.

“I didn’t think he was going to give me a fastball,” Vientos said. “That was my approach was to see a heater up, but I wasn’t expecting heater. I thought I was going to get like a slider and I was just going to poke it in the hole or something.

“(When Knack threw a fastball with the count full), I wasn’t going to miss it.”

The Mets loaded the bases against Knack again in the third inning but he escaped without damage. After Dodgers pitchers held batters to a .127 average (14 for 110) during their 33-inning scoreless streak, the Mets went 6 for 14 to start Game 2.

“I thought his slider was really good today,” Dodgers catcher Will Smith said of Knack. “His heater — yeah, he didn’t have his best heater. ... His changeup, just couldn’t get it going. It was probably not his best stuff but he went out there and competed.”

The relief relay that followed Knack was not a reprise of the group that put up zeroes in the NLDS. It didn’t include the high-leverage core of the Dodgers’ bullpen as Roberts held them back for a lead that never came.

Anthony Banda, Brent Honeywell Jr. and Edgardo Henriquez did hold the Mets scoreless until Henriquez gave up a run in the ninth.

But the Dodgers’ offense was fueled more by Mets pitching (eight walks) than their own swings (five hits) and couldn’t get enough going to come all the way back.

A 6-0 headstart would not have been insurmountable against left-hander Sean Manaea, who had a career record of 1-5 with a 7.09 ERA in 11 career appearances against the Dodgers. This was not that Manaea.

After bouncing from the Oakland A’s to the San Diego Padres to the San Francisco Giants in the previous three seasons, Manaea landed with the Mets this season and became a different pitcher when he changed his arm angle. Starting from the third base side of the rubber and striding toward first, Manaea throws across his body now with a three-quarters delivery that Roberts described before Game 2 as “Chris Sale-ish.”

“He’s quite different,” Dodgers second baseman Kiké Hernandez said. “Ball’s coming out, it’s way wider and lower than it was before. Pretty similar to Sale, I would say even a little more extreme.

“He’s got a really good fastball, especially from the angle. When it’s down, it sinks a lot. When it’s up, it stays, it’s ‘upshooty.’ When it’s in, sometimes it cuts back, sometimes it stays straight. He’s got a pretty unique heater.”

Manaea did a Sale job on the Dodgers for four innings, holding them to one hit in that time. Max Muncy led off the fifth with a solo home run to get the Dodgers on the board. When Manaea walked the first two batters in the sixth and second baseman Jose Iglesias booted a double play ball, the bases were loaded with no outs and Manaea’s day was done.

Tommy Edman greeted Mets reliever Phil Maton with a two-run single, the ball glancing off Pete Alonso’s glove and into right field. A Muncy walk re-loaded the bases but Kiké Hernandez bounced into an inning-ending double play.

Hernandez had another chance to audition for the hero role in the eighth inning. He came up with two runners on and two outs but flied out to right field against Mets closer Edwin Diaz.

“Overall, even though we fell behind big early, we did a good job of coming back,” Hernandez said. “Obviously, we didn’t get the big hit when we needed it. But we had our opportunities. I probably had the two biggest at-bats of the game, I didn’t come through. Even the fact that we fell behind early, until the end of the game we were kind of one swing away.

“Against Maton, I felt like I missed two really good pitches to hit. I was a little quick on both of them, both breaking balls. Against Díaz, he hung it. The previous ones had a little more depth than that one and I kind of didn’t beat it to the spot. Got really good pitches to hit. Just didn’t come through today.”

The Dodgers stranded two more runners in the ninth against Diaz.