8/15 Recap: Mets Blow 4-0 Lead Fall 5-4 to Dodgers

It’s never a dull day at the ballpark with the Heir-To-Fernando-Venezuela, Phenom Yasiel Puig, who brought the first bout of excitement and scored the decisive game winning run in the twelfth inning of tonight’s Mets-Dodgers game.

After an uneventful inning in which both starters, the Mets’ Dillion Gee and the Dodgers’ Chris Capuanom, tossed hitless frames, Mets RF got things started with a single in the top of the second. Justin Turner then poked one into right field, seemingly giving Marlon Byrd time to advance to third, but Puig took the entire ballpark by surprise and fired the ball 200 feet to third base to throw out Byrd.

Ike Davis would then reach on a fielder’s choice and take a rare stolen base, giving the Mets a man on second with one out and Andrew Brown coming up to the plate. After providing the pivotal hit in Sunday’s win over the Diamondbacks, the right handed Brown redeemed Byrd’s baserunning mistake by driving a ball to the opposite field for a double, scoring Ike from second.

Byrd then brought his own redemption in the third. After back-to-back singles through the hole by Daniel Murphy and Josh Satin, Byrd took a 3-0 fastball into the left-center field bleachers for a three run homer, giving the Mets an early 4-0 lead. It was Byrd’s eighteenth bomb of the year and 100^th of his career; he had been sitting on 99 for quite some time, having not homered since July 21^st.

After being held without a baserunner for the first three innings, the Dodgers first knocked on the door in the fourth. Carl Crawford led off the inning with a seeing-eye single to right field, but after a Puig strikeout, the eminent basestealer was called out at first on a pickoff throw by Dillon Gee. While Dodgers manager Don Mattingly argued, and the replay appeared to indicate that Crawford was in fact safe, the call stood, leaving LA with two outs and no one on base. The Dodgers, though, followed that up with three consecutive singles by Adrian Gonzalez, Hanley Ramirez, and Skip Schumaker, bringing the light hitting Mark Ellis up with the bases loaded. The veteran second baseman, however, lifted a 1-1 changeup to center, an easy fly out for Mets CF Juan Lagares

Aug 14, 2013; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers right fielder Yasiel Puig (66) at bat in the fourth inning of the game at against the New York Mets Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

Two innings later, Los Angeles finally broke out against Gee for a pair of runs. Hanley Ramirez drove a flat fastball into the gap in left-center for a double to give the Dodgers second and third with one out. After Gee hit Schumaker to load the bases, Adrian Gonzalez scored on a bouncer to shortstop Justin Turner that the Mets were unable to turn a double play on. Jerry Hairston then snuck a ground ball up the middle, right past the glove of a diving Murphy to bring the score to 4-2, where it would remain until the ninth.

After lefthander Scott Rice held the Dodgers hitless in the 7^th and the 8^th, geriatric closer LaTroy Hawkins came into close for the Mets. Hawkins allowed a leadoff single to Mark Ellis and then was struck in the stomach by a hard hit ground ball off the bat of Jerry Hairston. While he was capable of tossing the ball to first to get the out (although Ellis did advance to second), and said that he was not injured, the results indicated otherwise. In the very next at bat, Hawkins served up a fastball over the plate which pinch hitter Andre Ethier lofted into the left field seats to tie the game at 4 and send the teams into extras.

After both teams failed to eek a run across in both the 10th and the 11th, Puig came up with one out in the bottom of the 11th. Puig nicked a ground ball up the middle for a hit but was bursting out of the box, and barely hustled out a double. Adrian Gonzalez then lined a single down the line to score Puig and win the game, finishing off a three game sweep of the Mets.

Notes

>The Dodgers have now won 40 of their past 48 games and are 23-3 since the All Star Break

>Wilmer Flores, while not in the starting lineup, continued his strong hitting, lining a single up the middle in one pinch hit at bat

>Marlon Byrd went 3-6, falling just a triple shy of the cycle

>The Dodgers bullpen shutdown the Mets, tossing 7 shutout innings against the Mets