With the fireworks seemingly out of the way on Noah Syndergaard’s apparent attempt to hit Chase Utley, the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets played the final game of their regular-season series on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball broadcast.
Bartolo Colon retired the Dodgers in order in the first, ending the inning with a strikeout of Justin Turner. Clayton Kershaw fell behind in the count 2-0 to Curtis Granderson, who hit the southpaw’s third pitch for a leadoff double that carried over Joc Pederson’s head.
Granderson advanced to third base on a slow grounder, but he was stranded as Kershaw collected back-to-back strikeouts to get out of the inning unscathed.
Adrian Gonzalez drew a leadoff walk in the second and moved into scoring position with two outs as Howie Kendrick reached on a Colon error. However, both runners were stranded as A.J. Ellis hit a broken-bat liner to second base.
Kershaw struck out the first two batters faced in the bottom of the second en route to retiring the side in order. Utley and Corey Seager combined for back-to-back singles with one out in the third to put runners on the corners.
Wilmer Flores made somewhat of an unnecessary diving stop on Turner’s slow grounder, erasing any chance of the Mets turning an inning-ending double play. They did challenge Seager’s slide into second base, but it was deemed legal, and the Dodgers took a 1-0 lead.
Kershaw picked up his fifth strikeout of the game in the bottom of the third, giving him 100 on the season. With that, he became the first pitcher since 1900 to reach 100 strikeouts with fewer than seven walks in a single season. Kershaw had five walks at the time of reaching the milestone.
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One pitch after Colon snagged a Yasiel Puig line drive for the first out in the fourth inning, he gave up a line-drive double to Pederson. Kendrick lined out to deep right field allowing, Pederson to tag, where he was stranded as Ellis was called out on strikes.
Neil Walker ended Kershaw’s string of consecutive batters retired at 11 with a two-out double to left field in the bottom of the fourth. Nothing came of it, with Kershaw painting the black to get called strike three on Juan Lagares.
There was a brief scare in the fifth inning as Kershaw struck himself on the neck with the barrel of the bat on his follow-through swing. Kershaw didn’t make it out of the batter’s box on a grounder, but walked back to the dugout without issue.
The Dodgers mounted a two-out rally behind a trio of singles from Seager, Turner and Gonzalez, with the last of the three driving in a run. The Mets didn’t find any success in the bottom of the fifth with Flores, Kevin Plawecki and Eric Campbell going down in order.
Asdrubal Cabrera got the Mets on the board with two outs in the bottom of the sixth by lifting a Kershaw curveball for a solo home run to left field. Turner drew a two-out walk in the seventh and stole second base without drawing a throw.
Antonio Bastardo went to a full count against Gonzalez before getting him to fly out. Kershaw appeared to show some sign of fatigue in the bottom of the seventh, falling behind in the count to Walker and Lagares.
He retired both, however, with Ellis selling a foul-tip strikeout call that in actuality hit the dirt. Flores popped out on the first pitch he saw to end the inning. Pederson reached with one out on an error, but was stranded by Kendrick and Ellis.
While Carl Crawford was on deck to bat for Kershaw if Ellis extended the inning, the left-handed ace returned to the mound to start the bottom of the eighth having already thrown 105 pitches in the game.
He allowed a leadoff single, then retired the next two batters. Kershaw’s nice came to an end as he was removed, along with Kendrick, in a double switch that brought on Adam Liberatore and Kiké Hernandez.
It was the first time this season Kershaw was removed mid-inning. Liberatore fell behind in the count to Granderson and gave up an RBI triple that tied the game.
Jeurys Familia got himself into trouble in the ninth inning, allowing a leadoff single to Hernandez and issuing a pair of one-out walks to load the bases.
Gonzalez made him pay for it, muscling an inside fastball into center for a two-run single that gave the Dodgers a 4-2 lead. Kenley Jansen picked up a strikeout as he retired the side in order to convert the save.