LOS ANGELES — A season of fits and starts hit another snag on Wednesday night, the Dodgers sputtering out of the gate during a shaky first inning that set the tone for a 6-1 loss to the New York Mets before a crowd of 45,733 at Chavez Ravine.
Pete Alonso capped a three-run first inning with a two-run homer to right-center field off Dodgers starter Tony Gonsolin, and the Mets slugger crushed a 447-foot, three-run shot to left-center off reliever Ryan Loutos in the eighth to put the game out of reach.
Mets right-hander Griffin Canning, a former Angel, gave up three hits over six scoreless innings with seven strikeouts and one walk to earn the win, continuing a resurgent season in which he is 6-2 with a 2.90 ERA in 12 starts.
The Dodgers, meanwhile, failed to build on the momentum they generated with Tuesday night’s 6-5, 10-inning comeback win against the Mets, advancing only one runner to third base before Andy Pages hit a one-out solo homer in the bottom of the ninth.
They are still in first place in the National League West, their 37-25 record keeping them a game ahead of the San Diego Padres, but they are 29-25 since their blistering 8-0 start and have not won more than three games in a row since the beginning of May.
Of course, it hasn’t helped that the Dodgers have three front-line starting pitchers (Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, Roki Sasaki) and four top relievers (Blake Treinen, Evan Phillips, Michael Kopech, Kirby Yates) on the injured list.
“Teams win consistently by preventing runs, and it’s hard to do that when you’re piecing together a pitching staff,” Manager Dave Roberts said. “For us, it’s getting a quality start and good innings out of the bullpen.
“We haven’t been able to do that for the last few weeks, and that’s the reason we’ve played .500 baseball. It’s been hard to gain traction as far as winning seven of eight games, things like that.”
The Dodgers made a mess of the first inning on Wednesday night, Gonsolin hitting leadoff man Francisco Lindor in the right foot with a pitch and second baseman Kiké Hernández allowing Brandon Nimmo’s potential double-play grounder to roll under his glove for an error that put runners on first and third with no outs.
Juan Soto grounded out to second, Lindor scoring for a 1-0 lead, and Alonso drove a first-pitch 86 mph slider on the outer half of the plate over the right-center field wall for a two-run home run – his 13th of the season – and a 3-0 Mets lead.
“I felt pretty good from the beginning, but I pulled that slider that got Lindor, and then I threw a bad one to Pete, and he didn’t miss it,” said Gonsolin, who fell to 3-2 with a 5.00 ERA in seven starts. “He’s got good power. He’s able to go to all fields, and he hit that ball hard.”
Gonsolin rebounded from his rocky first inning to blank the Mets on two hits over the next four innings, which resulted in a respectable line score of five innings, three runs – two earned – three hits, six strikeouts and three walks.
“I thought after that first inning Tony recovered and pitched well and kept us in the ballgame,” Roberts said, “and we were in there until we weren’t.”
Canning kept the Dodgers at arm’s length, shutting down an offense that entered Wednesday leading the major leagues in runs (352), home runs (100), batting average (.267), slugging percentage (.469) and OPS (.812) and leading the NL in walks (233), extra-base hits (214) and on-base percentage (.343).
Canning went 25-34 with a 4.78 ERA in five seasons with the Angels, including a 6-13 record and 5.19 ERA in 32 games last season, before being traded to Atlanta for slugger Jorge Soler last October.
The Braves did not extend a contract offer to the arbitration-eligible Canning in December, freeing up the former Santa Margarita High and UCLA standout to sign a one-year, $4.25 million deal with the Mets, who made some adjustments to Canning’s pitch mix and encouraged him to try a new fastball grip.
The early returns have been promising, Canning providing quality depth and consistency to a rotation that leads the major leagues with a 2.87 ERA.
“Much different,” Roberts said, when asked how this season’s version of Canning compared to past year’s. “Obviously, he’s healthy. The stuff is playing up. The velocity is up. There’s a cutter, the slider is good, there’s a changeup. He’s a much better pitcher, with more weapons than he’s had in the past.”
Canning did not allow a runner to reach second base, and his only real stress came in the fifth inning, when he gave up a one-out single to Dalton Rushing before dotting a 95-mph fastball on the outside corner to Kiké Hernández for a called third strike.
Up stepped dangerous leadoff man Shohei Ohtani, Canning’s former Angels teammate, who had singled sharply to right field in the third inning.
Canning fell behind with a 3-and-1 count but responded with two of his best pitches of the night, an 87 mph slider on the outside corner for a called strike and a 91 mph changeup on the inside corner that the Dodgers slugger took for an inning-ending strikeout that left Ohtani shaking his head on the way back to the dugout.
Canning retired the heart of the Dodgers lineup – Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and Teoscar Hernández – in order in the sixth, pushing his pitch count to 99, before yielding to left-hander Jose Castillo, who escaped a two-on, one-out jam in the seventh by striking out Rushing and Kiké Hernández.
Dodgers relievers Anthony Banda and Lou Trivino each threw hitless innings to hold the 3-0 deficit, but Loutos hit Nimmo with a pitch and walked Soto before Alonso drove a 93 mph sinker deep into the left-field pavilion for a 6-0 lead and his 22nd career multi-homer game.
With Wednesday night’s win, the Mets clinched the season series against the Dodgers and home-field advantage in the playoffs in case a tiebreaker is necessary.
New York has won four of six games, with the teams meeting for the final time in the regular season on Thursday afternoon, and have limited the Dodgers to 22 runs, an average of 3.7 per game.
“They’ve pitched us really well, the execution, the sequencing … we’re kind of one step behind as far as anticipating what they’re going to do, and then when we do get opportunities with mistakes in the hitting zone, we’re not cashing in,” Roberts said. “I don’t know the answer, but I do know you have to give those guys credit for pitching us well.”