Dodgers Beat Sloppy Mets 8-3

Let’s focus on the good. Let’s forget that the Mets made three errors and pretty much gave away Sunday night’s game to the Dodgers. Let’s revel in the fact that the Mets won three out of four in Los Angeles — never an easy task on these West coast swings.

The Mets grabbed the early lead in the first. Ruben Tejada walked with one out, David Wright reached on an infield single and then Scott Hairston singled to left to score Tejada and make it 1-0. The Mets ran themselves out of doing more damage in the inning — Hairston was thrown out trying to get to second, and the first out of the inning was made when Andres Torres, who led off the game getting hit by a pitch, was picked off of first. That was the third base running blunder for Torres in the past two games.

The Dodgers tied the score in the bottom of the inning when Juan Rivera doubled in a run.

Dillon Gee led off the third inning with a walk. Tejada singled to put runners on first and second with one out. Wright grounded into a fielder’s choice — Tejada was out at second, but shortstop Dee Brown’s throw in an attempt to get the double play was wild, allowing Gee to score to make it 2-1. Wright moved to second. Hairston then hit a grounder to Brown, whose throw to first bounced in front of James Loney for Brown’s second error of the inning. Loney then forgot all about Wright, who never stopped running and scored to make it 3-1.

The Mets had some sloppy defense of their own in the fifth. Juan Uribe led off with a walk and Tony Gwynn then hit a grounder to third. Wright threw to second baseman Ronny Cedeno, who dropped the ball for an error. Clayton Kershaw sacrificed to put runners on second and third. Brown then hit a grounder to first baseman Justin Turner who also dropped the ball for an error, allowing Uribe to score to make it 3-2. Gwynn later scored on a sacrifice fly to tie the game at three. Cedeno and Turner were only in the game because Daniel Murphy and Ike Davis were sitting against the tough lefty Kershaw.

The Dodgers took their first lead of the series in the sixth. After Rivera led off with a walk, Adam Kennedy hit a ground rule double to put runners on second and third. Rivera would score on a ground out to make it 4-3. Fortunately Kennedy was then thrown out at home trying to score on a grounder to short to keep it a one run lead.

Gee lasted six innings, allowing four runs (two earned).

The wheels came off in the seventh. With one out Gordon singled off of Ramon Ramirez. Gordon stole second and A.J. Ellis walked. That was all for Ramirez. Justin Hampson came on and Gordon promptly stole third — his third steal of the game. He then walked Bobby Abreu to load the bases and Hampson was pulled from the game. Miguel Batista got Rivera to bounce back to him for a certain inning-ending double play. He threw home, but Mike Nickeas just missed the ball. Two runs scored on Nickeas’s error to make it 6-3. A sacrifice fly made it 7-3, and then Loney doubled to score Rivera to extend the lead to 8-3.

So the Mets drop the final game of the series, 8-3. The Dodgers, by the way, snapped a seven game losing streak.