Mets fall to Dodgers in series opener at Citi Field
The Mets' Pete Alonso breaks his bat after flying out to end the seventh inning against the Dodgers on Tuesday at Citi Field. Credit: Adam Hunger
In the first game of their final regular-season series against each other, the Mets and Dodgers looked much like they did the last time they met: awfully evenly matched.
The Mets lost, 4-3, in the opener of a potential playoff preview after the Dodgers scratched across a run in the seventh inning against lefthander Joely Rodriguez. The Mets repeatedly failed to convert on their scoring chances, especially early, stranding seven runners.
Picking up the save for the Dodgers: Jake Reed, whom the Mets cut last month after he had an 11.37 ERA in five games for them. Closer Craig Kimbrel was unavailable after throwing 32 pitches Monday in Miami. Daniel Vogelbach grounded into a double play to get the Mets down to their last out.
In a lot of ways, this was similar to their June series, when the Dodgers (90-38) took the first two games but the Mets (82-48) snuck away with the last two to earn a split. The Dodgers totaled 16 runs, the Mets 15.
“One-run games against a team like this, we'll take it," Mets starter Taijuan Walker said. "We match up well against them, but it's always going to be a dogfight when you face good teams, and tonight was a dogfight. They came out on top tonight but we'll be back tomorrow.”
The difference this time came in the seventh, when Rodriguez — for the second time in his past three appearances — retired just one of his four batters.
Freddie Freeman led off with a weak ground ball barely fair down the leftfield line. With a heavy defensive shift on, and the left side wide open, it became a double. After he advanced to third on a groundout and the Mets intentionally walked pinch hitter Will Smith, putting runners on the corners with one out, Gavin Lux stroked a go-ahead single to center.
“It's unfortunate. The game is not always fair,” manager Buck Showalter said. “At the same time, Seth [Lugo] gave up a ball hit — with the bases loaded — real hard [luck] that we caught. It was at somebody, so we could catch it. It seems like Joely's had a lot of tough luck. I look at some of these averages, exit velocities and stuff, and they’re down. But the game’s not always fair.”
Walker and Andrew Heaney pitched to a draw into the middle innings.
Heaney, who gave up three runs across five frames, spotted the Mets an early lead with a throwing error in the first, flipping Starling Marte’s bunt past first base and down the rightfield line. Brandon Nimmo scored from first. Mark Canha hit a tying homer in the fourth, his fourth long ball in 10 games (after he had seven across more than four months).
Among the Mets’ missed opportunities was a first-and-third, no-outs chance in the first inning. Pete Alonso’s strikeout in the fifth stranded two runners. In the sixth, they had another two on with two out and James McCann due up.
Showalter considered a pinch hitter for McCann but opted not to because it would’ve required spending three bench players for one move: Vogelbach, the would-be pinch hitter who can’t run because of a hamstring issue; Brett Baty, who could pinch run but not hit or field because of a sore right thumb; and Tomas Nido, who would’ve replaced McCann behind the plate.
“It would've really cramped us covering the game,” Showalter said.
McCann struck out swinging against Heath Hembree, the winning pitcher and another former Met, ending their last multi-runner threat.
“There’s definitely some spots, one for me specifically, that didn’t go our way,” McCann said.
Walker allowed three runs and five hits in 5 1/3 innings, rebounding well after a 28-pitch third in which Los Angeles scored all three of those runs.
"They've been the best team for a long time, and I thought we played well tonight,” Walker said. “We just didn't come out on top.”
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
