The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Thundering Dodgers hit five home runs, deck Mets
NEW YORK » Yasiel Puig hit a tiebreaking homer in the seventh inning and the thundering Los Angeles Dodgers went deep five times, rallying past the New York Mets 7-4 on Saturday to extend their incredible surge.
Chris Taylor, Justin Turner, Corey Seager and rookie Cody Bellinger also connected for the Dodgers, who are 43-7 since June 7. That’s the best 50-game run by a big league team since the 1912 New York Giants compiled the same mark from May 14 to July 3.
Los Angeles has won all but one of its last 13 games, upping the top record in the majors to an astounding 78-32. That puts the Dodgers at 46 games above .500 for the first time since they were 98-51 on Sept. 15, 1962.
That team — led by Don Drysdale, Sandy Koufax and NL MVP Maury Wills — didn’t even win the pennant after dropping a bestof-three playoff to rival San Francisco. This year’s Dodgers are looking to end a World Series drought that dates to the franchise’s last championship in 1988.
“It’s a wave that we’re riding,” manager Dave Roberts said. “I know our players and they realize that we haven’t done anything yet.”
Leadoff man Michael Conforto, Wilmer Flores and Curtis Granderson homered in the first inning off Dodgers lefty Rich Hill, the NL pitcher of the month for July.
Mets starter Seth Lugo held Los Angeles hitless until the fifth, but it didn’t last.
Taylor homered leading off the sixth, connecting in a third straight game for the first time in his career. One out later, Turner singled and Bellinger nearly went down to one knee to lift his 31st homer over the right-center fence, tying it at 3.
Puig hit his 21st of the season leading off the seventh against Paul Sewald (0-4), lining a laser shot to left for his second in two games. Turner sent a solo shot to center off Sewald in the eighth, and Seager added a two-run drive into the second deck in right field against Fernando Salas in the ninth.
The five home runs equaled a season high for Los Angeles. Brandon Morrow (4-0) pitched a hitless sixth for the win.
Rene Rivera homered in the bottom of the ninth for the Mets, who have lost six of seven.
New York has dropped eight straight to the Dodgers dating to last year. The Mets have given up 23 homers and been outscored 4915 in losing all six meetings this season.