The Los Angeles Dodgers rallied from a two-run deficit with four runs in the seventh inning and defeated the New York Mets 5-2 on Saturday night to even their best-of-five National League Division Series at one game apiece.
With six strikeouts in his previous seven at-bats, Adrian Gonzalez capped off the comeback with a two-out, two-run double down the right-field line off Addison Reed and Los Angeles saved their season – for one night at least.
"You don't have to sugar coat it," Gonzalez joked after the game. "Luckily I was able to put the ball in play, and thank God it got over Duda's head and have us the runs to win the game."
The turning point of the game came on a controversial call made just minutes before Gonzalez's at-bat.
With runners on the corners and one-out, Chase Utley slid hard into Mets' shortstop Ruben Tejada's legs, throwing Tejada into the air, breaking his right leg, but keeping the Dodgers postseason hopes alive in the process.
"He broke my shortstop's leg, that's all I know," Mets manager Terry Collins said of the play. "It's over. It's done. Not much we can do about it except come out in a couple days and get after it."
The slide that changed the NLDS? http://t.co/sEF78BTVXE pic.twitter.com/tJmWEwHp3a — NBC Sports (@NBCSports) October 11, 2015
Utley's slide sparked the four-run seventh inning as Utley would stay on second after a replay review showed that Tejada did not touch second base, and the call was overturned.
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"I was going hard to try and break up a double play," Utley said. "I feel terrible that he got injured, I had no intent to hurt anyone whatsoever, but I did have the intent to break up the double play."
He would later score the go-ahead run on Gonzalez's double, which was followed by Justin Turner who doubled again, giving the Dodgers a three-run lead.
The controversial slide and the aftermath that followed changed the course of a game that seemed destined to end similar the first game of the series.
"I have a problem with the play on a number of different levels," Mets' third baseman David Wright said. "In my opinion, he wasn't anywhere close to the bag. With that being said, he never touched the bag."
Mets rookie, Noah Syndergaard, had outdueled Dodgers ace, and Cy Young Candidate Zack Greinke for six innings, just as his predecessor, Jacob DeGrom, did to Clayton Kershaw in Game 1 a night prior.
Syndergaard was virtually unhittable for the better part of six innings, reaching triple digits on the gun with a fastball that was clocked as high as 101 MPH, and a nasty off speed pitch to boot.
"I think every guy they have throws 100," Kendrick joked. "The biggest thing is you have to go out there and compete. All there guys are going to be tough."
Syndergaard earned the loss however, in his first career postseason start, allowing three runs on five hits with nine strikeouts in 6.1 innings.
Greinke picked up the win, allowing two runs on five hits with eight strikeouts and no walks in seven strong innings.
"I felt good starting the game off and was making a lot of good pitchers," Greinke said. "I made a couple mistakes, the pitch to Comforto was probably the biggest mistake of the game for me. Besides that, I pitched all right"
Yoenis Cespedes and Michael Comforto launched four-seam fastballs into the right field seats off Greinke in the second inning, with the latter blast hitting the foul pole. It was just the third time all season that Greinke has allowed two home runs in a start, and the first time in the same inning since April 26, 2014.
"Two homers in one inning against Zack, I'm not sure I've ever seen that before," center fielder Kiké Hernandez said playing behind his starting pitcher. "We battled every single at-bat and were able to come back."
Trailing 2-1 in the seventh inning, Hernandez worked a one-out walk to start the rally. One batter later, Utley hit a pinch-hit single that chased Syndergaard from the game.
Bartolo Colon came out of the pen to face Howie Kendrick in his first postseason relief appearance of his career.
Kendrick hit an RBI fielder's choice single up the middle, which ignited the collision at second base.
Chris Hatcher worked a scoreless inning of relief for the second night in a row, and Kenley Jansen picked up his fourth career postseason save in the ninth inning.
Game Notes:
Conforto homered in his first career postseason at-bat, and Cespede's homer was the first opposite field homer allowed by Greinke since Mike Trout in the All-Star Game.
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