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By Jon Weisman
Curtis Granderson came up to bat against Brett Anderson in the bottom of the second inning. The Dodgers led, 3-1. Two were out.
Rarely has that last sentence meant so little and so much.
Granderson’s booming, bases-loaded, bases-clearing to right-center drove home the first three of no fewer than nine Mets runs with two out tonight, as New York pushed aside the Chase Utley drama and a three-run Dodger second inning to win Game 3 of the National League Division Series, 13-7.
For the Dodgers, the score broke the franchise record for runs allowed in a postseason game. Los Angeles gave up 12 in Game 5 of the 1978 World Series and again in Game 4 of the 1985 National League Championship Series.
In the third inning, Travis d’Arnaud hit a two-out, two-run home run — like Granderson, also on the first pitch of the at-bat. Then, in the fourth, reliever Alex Wood was also within an out of escaping a jam before giving up a soft RBI single to Daniel Murphy … followed by a crushed, 431-foot, three-run homer by Yoenis Cespedes that came not only with two out, but two strikes.
The Dodgers’ inability to get that third out cost them a chance to steal a Game 3 off Matt Harvey, who was shaky (97 pitches, nine baserunners in five innings) but with one exception, effective when he needed to be.
After a pregame, Utley-inspired Wall of Booing resounding enough to be orchestrated by Phil Spector, fans in New York watched the Dodgers take the stage with a solid opening act in the second inning. Justin Turner (two hits for the third straight game), Andre Ethier and Carl Crawford loaded the bases with singles, and Yasmani Grandal cleared them with a two-run single — with a run-scoring Granderson throwing error as a coda.
With Grandal on second base, Howie Kendrick hit a 101 mph rocket that David Wright made a small jump to snag. And nothing went right for Los Angeles after that.
To start the bottom of the second, Jimmy Rollins took too long to throw after fielding a Cespedes grounder, leading to an infield single. Base hits by Lucas Duda and d’Arnaud followed for a run. Then, Kendrick couldn’t parlay a slow chopper by Wilmer Flores into an out, loading the bases.
Juan Lagares grounded to Adrian Gonzalez, who forced Duda at home for the first out. Harvey struck out for the second out.
Granderson stepped in, and the two-out trauma began, and like expatriates at Casablanca, Dodger fans could only wait for it to end. And wait. And wait.
Gonzalez (2 for 3 with a walk) ended the Mets’ streak of scoring in the seventh inning with a home run — the Dodgers’ first after 24 homerless innings to start the NLDS. It was Gonzalez’s third consecutive game with an RBI, and it was even with two out. But unfortunately for the Dodgers, those two out had just come after Rollins grounded into a double play.
In the bottom of the seventh, Granderson doubled in two more runs, giving him five RBI from the leadoff spot to tie the NL postseason record, originally set by Davey Lopes in Game 1 of the 1978 World Series.
Kendrick followed singles by Kiké Hernandez and late-inning replacement Corey Seager with a three-run homer, representing one-third of the runs the Dodgers needed in the ninth to come back and tie. They pushed New York into bringing closer Jeurys Familia to protect the six-run lead, which he did.
The Mets, essentially, have two outs on the Dodgers in the NLDS. Los Angeles will step up trying to avoid a season-ending third out Tuesday, throwing Clayton Kershaw on three days’ rest against Steven Matz.
Michael Green
First, Anderson has GOT to stomp them after the Dodgers score those runs. Well, he didn’t have it. But it served as a reminder that our poem is “Kershaw and Greinke, then get out the hanky.”
Second, everyone will fault D. Baseball for something, but I recalled a column that Bill Corum wrote when Larry MacPhail was ordering Leo Durocher to get back in at shortstop during a pennant race and to take out a kid who was having problems. Corum said, Leo, you were a great shortstop, but this boy is the future, and you have to stick with him. In the next big game, that shortstop actually made an error that almost cost the Dodgers the game but that Dodger team was capable of coming back and did. That shortstop, as The Vin’s mentor used to say, “Came heah a boy and became not just a man, but a captain among men.” I don’t see where putting Rollins in last night made a lot of sense.
oldbrooklynfan
It looked great when the Dodgers scored those 3 runs off Harvey, maybe, just maybe, Harvey was having an off night but that didn’t last and now it’s on to Game 4.