Dodgers hit five home runs to complete sweep of Mets
Mets starting pitcher Carlos Carrasco watches the solo home run hit by Los Angeles Dodgers' Will Smith during the first inning of an MLB baseball game at Citi Field on Sunday, Aug. 15, 2021. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
For the Mets, the baseball postseason has never felt so far away.
There is a good reason for that. They fell behind in the very early going against the Dodgers on Sunday night, faltered during several opportunities to get back in the game and ultimately succumbed, 14-4, before 31,205 at Citi Field to give Los Angeles a three-game sweep.
Max Muncy hit two of the Dodgers’ five home runs, with the fifth, a two-run shot by Matt Beaty, coming against utilityman Brandon Drury with two outs in the ninth inning. Outfielder Kevin Pillar relieved Drury and got the final out. Justin Turner and Will Smith also homered for the Dodgers, who outhit the Mets 16-6.
The Mets (59-58) are 2 1⁄2 games behind NL East-leading Atlanta (62-56), matching their biggest deficit in the division race this season, and 1 1⁄2 games behind Philadelphia. Now they face seven road games against the mighty Giants and Dodgers.
After the games of July 28, the Mets (54-46) had a five-game lead over Atlanta (50-52). Since then, the Mets have gone 5-12 and Atlanta has gone 12-4.
"This was a tough series, and not to get one win out of it?" manager Luis Rojas said. "We have to turn the page. We can’t look one minute back behind us . . . We can’t be too down. We have to start regrouping ourselves."
This one felt over almost before it started. The Mets’ struggling lineup already was going to have its hands full in facing three-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer, who said he would veto a trade-deadline deal to the Mets before being sent from the Nationals to the Dodgers.
The Dodgers scored three runs in the first inning and three in the second, pounding three homers, to put the Mets and Carlos Carrasco in a substantial hole.
"They’re a really good team — they hit everything, man," said Carrasco, who gave up home runs on a fastball, a slider and a changeup.
The Mets got within 6-2 after four innings but already were 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position. They had stranded four runners on third and three on second to that point.
That’s when Scherzer really got into a groove, and soon after that, the Dodgers broke it open. L.A. scored three more in the sixth with the help of Muncy’s second two-run homer to make it 9-2.
"We’ve got to get the hitting going once again," Rojas said. "We created some chances, put some runners on tonight and we just didn’t finish . . . We’ve got to drive some runners in. That’s what we’ve got to take away from this series because to beat these teams right now that are fighting for a playoff spot . . . . that’s what’s going to be the difference."
The Mets added a pair of runs in the seventh on a wild pitch and J.D. Davis’ sacrifice fly but finished the game 0-for-12 with runners in scoring position and left 10 men on base. Scherzer (10-4) gave up two runs, four hits and two walks, striking out seven; Carrasco (0-1) needed 57 pitches to get through two innings and allowed six runs.
The Dodgers had a fourth three-run rally in the eighth as Smith singled home two runs and Chris Taylor added an RBI double.
Carrasco was making only his fourth start after missing the first three months of the season because of injury, and his pitching Sunday looked more like batting practice for the powerful Dodgers.
Justin Turner hit a two-run homer and Smith added a solo shot in the first to make it 3-0. Trea Turner had an RBI single and Muncy hit his first two-run home run in the second.
Smith did a lot of damage to the Mets in the series. His two-run homer gave the Dodgers a 10-inning victory on Friday and his solo homer in the seventh tied Saturday’s game before L.A. won in 10 innings.
Of the Mets’ squandered opportunities early in the game, the most curious came in the second. As Carrasco struggled to finish the inning, Jake Reed warmed up in the bullpen. Then, when the pitcher’s spot came up with two on and one out, Rojas sent Carrasco up to put down a successful sacrifice bunt. After Brandon Nimmo’s inning-ending groundout, Reed was on the mound when the third inning started.
Of sending Carrasco up to bunt, Rojas said, "We weren’t going to use a pinch hitter at that moment because we only had four guys on the bench . . . We were going to run into a situation where we’d run out of players probably."
As it turned out, he had two left to pitch the final inning.
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
