Mets hold on to beat Dodgers in rubber match
Mets outfielder Starling Marte scores on a double by Francisco Lindor in the sixth inning against the Dodgers at Citi Field on Thursday. Credit: Newsday/Thomas A. Ferrara
Timmy Trumpet is gone for now. So when Edwin Diaz came in for the eighth inning on Thursday with the Mets holding a three-run lead over the Dodgers, the Citi Field crowd of 36,908 had to enjoy the taped performance of “Narco” — not the live version Mr. Trumpet trotted out on Wednesday night.
“Tried to get him in in the eighth for trumpet guy,” manager Buck Showalter said. “Was he here?”
Perhaps trumpet guy’s absence is why Diaz barely escaped the eighth with the lead intact. Diaz twice nearly surrendered a game-tying three-run homer.
But he didn’t, and the Mets went on to take the rubber match against the Dodgers, 5-3.
Diaz and Mets fans exhaled two times, when Brandon Nimmo — who on Wednesday robbed a home run — ran down consecutive drives by Max Muncy to the warning track in center and Justin Turner to deepest left-center.
With the Mets’ lead reduced to 5-3 on Turner’s sacrifice fly, Diaz ended the inning by striking out Gavin Lux on a 102.8-mile per hour fastball — the fastest pitch he’s ever thrown.
“I was feeling pretty good with my fastball,” said Diaz, who was brought in to face the meat of the Dodgers’ order and opened the inning by walking Freddie Freeman and hitting Will Smith with a pitch. “So I kept throwing my fastball. I was a little bit angry because I wasn’t commanding my slider the way I want.”
Said Showalter: “I think he realized he wasn’t carrying the normal torque on his breaking ball. He almost got hurt with a couple of them and had to go to Option B. Pretty good Option B, isn’t it?”
Adam Ottavino struck out two in a 1-2-3 ninth for his third save, all of them since Aug. 25. Diaz has been used in the eighth in five of his last 13 appearances.
The Mets took the season series against the Dodgers by winning four of seven. Coincidentally, that’s the same number of wins it would take to earn a trip the World Series in a dream Mets-Dodgers NLCS.
“It’s a battle,” Showalter said. “You’re pitches away or inches. It’s just a close battle against a really good team. It’s good to establish that we can play with them in these seven games.”
Darin Ruf, who heard some boos after popping out with the bases loaded in the first and striking out to open the fourth, put the Mets ahead to stay at 3-2 with a sixth-inning sacrifice fly.
The Mets were trailing 2-1 when Dodgers manager Dave Roberts took out Clayton Kershaw after five innings and 74 pitches. Kershaw hadn’t pitched since Aug. 4 because of back woes.
Starling Marte opened the sixth by beating out a slowly-hit ball to second for a single against righthander Chris Martin (4-1). Francisco Lindor followed with an RBI double to right-center. Lindor later stole third, from where he was able to score on Ruf’s deep drive into the leftfield corner.
The Mets were probably glad to see Kershaw go. The future Hall of Famer struggled out of the gate before turning dominant. He walked three in the first inning, including Mark Canha with the bases loaded, to fall behind 1-0.
The only hit in the first was a ground single to center by Lindor. That would turn out to be the only hit Kershaw allowed.
Kershaw ended the first by getting Jeff McNeil to foul out to third with the bases loaded. That started a string of 13 in a row retired by Kershaw, including all six of his strikeouts.
The Dodgers took a 2-1 lead in the second against Chris Bassitt (12-7) on Chris Taylor’s two-run single. Trayce Thompson tried to score from first and was thrown out by a large margin by Lindor.
The Mets got a pair of insurance runs in the seventh when James McCann doubled with two outs and scored on Nimmo’s fly ball to short right that fell untouched behind the stumbling Lux and Gold Glover Mookie Betts, who didn’t come in hard after it. It was scored an RBI double. Marte followed with an RBI single to left to make it 5-2 and set up Diaz’s entrance.
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
