(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Henk Seppen)
 Mets win big to take 2-1 lead vs. Dodgers
Nederlands
 QUEENS, New York City, New York (USA) -
The New York Mets had a productive evening in front of a home crowd in Citi Field on Monday (October 12) and went on to win comfortably 13-7 vs. the Los Angeles Dodgers to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five National League Division Series.
Curtis Granderson contributed with five runs batted in.
Game Four will be played on Tuesday.
The 20 runs ended a long baseball-day with four games in which a record-total of 61 runs were scored and a record-total of 21 homeruns were hit.
For the Mets, this was their first home game in the postseason since 2006 and the first-ever in Citi Field.
Tonight was less than 48 hours after the controversial slide made by Chase Utley in Game 2 of the series in Los Angeles.
His takeout slide resulting in a broken leg for short stop Ruben Tejada.
In the play, Utley initially was called out, then ruled safe after a challenge.
On Sunday, it was announced that Utley was suspended for two games for his hard sliding, but appealed the decision.
As the appeal wasn't handled yet today, Utley was eligible to play for the Dodgers in tonight's game.
The Mets added infielder Matt Reynolds to their roster as replacement for Tejada.
Reynolds not only has never played in the postseason before, he also never played in the Major League before.
This season, he batted .267 while playing for the Mets' Triple-A team.
Earlier today, both American League Division Series were forced to go all the way.
The Houston Astros failed to hold onto a 6-2 lead vs. Kansas City Royals and lost 9-6, while the Toronto Blue Jays won 8-4 vs. Texas Rangers after having lost the first two games at home.
Both series will be concluded on Wednesday.
Recap Game 4, Royals vs. Astros
Recap Game 4, Blue Jays vs. Rangers
In the evening, the Chicago Cubs win 8-6 vs. the St. Louis Cardinals to take a 2-1 lead in their NLDS.
Recap Game 3, Cubs vs. Cardinals
Tonight's starting pitchers were righthander Matt Harvey for the Mets and lefthander Brett Anderson for the Dodgers.
Matt Harvey was 13-8 this season with 188 strikeouts in 189 1/3 inning.
He missed the entire 2014 season due to Tommy John-surgery.
He was 0-1 this season against the Dodgers in the regular season.
Brett Anderson was 10-9 this season, his first with the Dodgers, and struckout 116 batters in 180 1/3 inning.
Anderson never pitched against the Mets in his career and made his first postseason-appearance tonight since 2013.
Former Mets-player Rusty Staub threw the ceremonial first pitch before tonight's game.
He hit three homeruns and had five runs batted for the Mets in the 1973 NLCS, then added six RBI's in the following World Series.
The game initially started with a brief delay.
Shortly before the game was about to begin, Home Plate Umpire Greg Gibson brought his five colleagues in and had a discussion with Managers Don Mattingly (Dodgers) and Terry Collins (Mets).
It didn't had anything to do with possible warnings regarding the Utley-situation, but the replay phone in the Dodger dug-out wasn't working.
Once that was solved, the game started five minutes later.
After a scoreless first inning, the Dodgers scored three runs in the top of the second off of Matt Harvey.
The Dodgers got the bases loaded quickly when Justin Turner, Andre Ethier and Carl Crawford all began the inning with singles.
Hereafter, Yasmani Grandal also singled.
Turner and Ethier scored on the basehit, then an errant throw enabled Crawford also to score to give the Dodgers a 3-0 lead.
But that was to be it for a long time for the team.
...Travis d'Arnaud was 3-for-5 with a HR...
...He scored 3 runs and had 3 RBI's...
...On the photo, he is with the Blue Jays...
...in Spring Training 2012...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
In the bottom of the second inning, the Mets answered with four runs to immediately turn the game their way.
Like Harvey, Brett Anderson gave up four consecutive singles to start the inning.
First Yoenis Cespedes and Lucas Duda singled.
Then Travis d'Arnaud singled in the first run.
Hereafter, Wilmer Flores singled to load the bases.
A force out at home followed on a grounder by Juan Lagares.
But with two outs, Curtis Granderson cleared the bases with a 3-run double to give the Mets a 4-3 lead.
After the Dodgers stranded two runners in the top of the third, the Mets added two more runs in its third.
With one out, Yoenis Cespedes singled and then, with two outs, Travis d'Arnaud homered to make it 6-3 in favor of the Mets.
The home team the completely broke open the game with a 4-run rally with two outs in the bottom of the fourth inning.
Alex Wood took over the pitching for the Dodgers, but gave up a lead-off double to Juan Lagares.
With two outs, David Wright was walked intentionally, but Daniel Murphy followed with a runscoring single.
Hereafter, Yoenis Cespedes drilled the ball into deep leftfield for a 3-run homerun that lifted the lead to 10-3.
Two scoreless innings followed, then the Dodgers got one run back in the top of the seventh when Adrian Gonzalez homered after veteran Jimmy Rollins had grounded into a double play.
Rollins was the starting short stop for the Dodgers tonight.
Before tonight, he had played in 47 postseason-games, while Chase Utley is the other veteran on the roster with 48 postseason-appearances.
In 2008, the two won the World Series with the Philadelphia Phillies.
In the bottom of the seventh, the Mets staged another rally.
New pitcher Pedro Baez got the bases loaded when Travis d'Arnaud led off with a single and Wilmer Flores and Juan Lagares both walked.
Hereafter, J. Howell became the new pitcher.
A run was then scored on a sacrifice fly by pinch-hitter Michael Conforto and Curtis Granderson followed with a 2-run double to give him five RBI's tonight.
And with that, the lead was increased to 13-4.
And with that, the Mets set a new club-postseason-record with 13 runs.
Now trailing 13-4, the Dodgers staged a little comeback in the top of the ninth inning.
New pitcher Erik Goeddel gave up singles to Kiké Hernandez and Corey Seager, then Howie Kendrick homered.
While a fan touched the ball, the homerun was upheld after a challenge.
Hereafter, Jimmy Rollins singled and Jeurys Familia was brought in as new pitcher.
He retired the next three batters to end the game.
(October 12)
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