Mets eke out a win after Sandy Alderson says Terry Collins is safe

In an effort perhaps to restore some semblance of stability, Mets general manager Sandy Alderson threw his support behind manager Terry Collins.

"To put all of this on Terry would be grossly unfair," Alderson said Friday when he insisted that Collins' job was not in jeopardy despite the Mets' recent slide.

Hours later, Alderson watched as the wobbly Mets scratched out a 2-1 victory over the Dodgers, ending what had been a punchless three-game losing streak.

The Mets have been without David Wright for virtually the entire first half. They have also endured large swaths of time without catcher Travis d'Arnaud and infielder Daniel Murphy.

Yet, after wasting a 10-game cushion they built earlier in the season, the Mets (41-40) reached the halfway point as a winning team.

Rookie catcher Kevin Plawecki knocked in the winning run with a sacrifice fly in the ninth. The rally began on Lucas Duda's bloop double and Wilmer Flores' infield hit off the mitt of Dodgers reliever Kenley Jansen.

It was enough for the Mets to score a much-needed win.

"To catch a couple of breaks, that's huge for us," Collins said of the ninth-inning rally.

Pitted against Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw, Mets rookie Noah Syndergaard pitched with the poise of a veteran, holding the Dodgers to just one run and two hits over six innings. His only mistake was a second-inning changeup that Adrian Gonzalez slugged for his 14th homer.

Otherwise, Syndergaard kept the Dodgers off the board.

In the fourth, he got some help from Duda, who made a pair of sterling defensive plays. In the sixth, Syndergaard ended another threat, striking out Yasiel Puig with a nasty 3-and-2 curveball, his 107th and final pitch of the night.

"That's a big-league pitch," Collins said. "Four starts ago, that would have been a fastball."

Despite his brilliance, however, Syndergaard departed with the score tied 1-1.

Flores evened the score in the fourth against Kershaw, going the other way to score John Mayberry Jr., who doubled to lead off the inning. The Mets came away with just one run despite moving a runner to third base with nobody out.

But they rallied in the ninth, with Plawecki's deep fly ball allowing Duda to score from third. Closer Jeurys Familia slammed the door in the Dodgers' ninth to record his 22nd save.

Though the Mets won, their struggling lineup remains an issue. They have just three runs in their last 38 innings.

The offensive ineptitude has even prompted the Mets to consider promoting 2014 first-round pick Michael Conforto (.327/.411/.522 at Double-A Binghamton).

Alderson cautioned against expecting Conforto to be promoted in the "near term," though he added "I wouldn't say anything's off the table."

But the prospect might be the Mets' most immediate avenue toward improving the lineup.

The trade market, Alderson said, remains a challenge.

Said Alderson: "There just aren't that many teams that have decided who they are and what they want to do."