Thompson blast sinks Mets in 9th
LOS ANGELES — Trayce Thompson, whose brother Klay is lighting it up for the Golden State Warriors, showed a little clutch of his own.
His long home run off Hansel Robles with two outs and none on in the bottom of the ninth powered the Dodgers to a 3-2 win over the Mets Tuesday night, putting an end to New York’s three-game winning streak.
It was the Dodgers outfielder’s first walk-off home run and his second home run in two nights against the Mets, who suffered their second walk-off loss of the season.
The ending spoiled gutsy performances from Jacob deGrom and Antonio Bastardo.
In a 2-2 game in the eighth, Bastardo, working his third straight game, got into immediate trouble giving up a ground-rule double to Corey Seager. After intentionally walking Justin Turner, he induced what looked like a double-play ground ball out of Adrian Gonzalez, but David Wright, after stepping on third, was not able to get off a strong enough throw to first.
Bastardo coaxed a flyout out of Yasmani Grandal before getting Joc Pederson on a ground ball with the count full.
Like he did last October, in the decisive Game 5 of the National League Division Series, deGrom struggled early but battled. He allowed two runs on a season-hightying eight hits in seven innings. He did not walk a batter and struck out four.
DeGrom has admitted to some privately that he physically “just doesn’t feel like last year,” but publicly the Mets insist he is healthy. Privately, there has been concern about him since spring training.
The nagging injuries — groin, back and side — have raised red flags.
And so did his sudden drop in velocity.
This spring deGrom’s fastball was clocked about two miles an hour slower than last October. His four-seam fastball was sitting around 93 miles an hour in April, according to Brooks Baseball.
Tuesday night deGrom’s fastball was trending up. He touched 96 twice and it sat at 94 most of the night. But there was an obvious difference in the results.
In two games in the playoffs Gonzalez couldn’t catch up with deGrom’s fastball. He struck out five times in six at-bats. Tuesday night Gonzalez went 2-for-3 with three hard hit balls. Still, deGrom got outs. He was hit hard at the start, with Chase Utley and Corey Seager leading off with back-to-back doubles. Utley scored on Seager’s hit and the Dodgers shortstop scored on Gonzalez’s sacrifice fly to left. Utley — who still has the Mets angry over his slide last year that broke Ruben Tejada’s leg — had a hand in giving that lead back in the second. With runners on first and second, his off-target throw to second base trying to get a force allowed Yoenis Cespedes to score.
Kevin Plawecki drove in the tying run with a line drive to left field. It was the catchers’ second straight game with an RBI.
DeGrom had to work around trouble most of the night after he got out of the first. He had runners in scoring position in the second and third and runners on base in every inning.
He got some defensive help to get him out of those jams.
Asdrubal Cabrera made a nifty bare-handed play off a deflected ball to throw out Utley and end the fourth inning. Cespedes showed off his powerful right arm, playing Gonzalez’s double off the center field wall and throwing him out at second from the warning track in the fifth.
Collins changed his lineup Tuesday with the Mets facing a left-handed starter for just the sixth time this season, but the second night in a row.
Curtis Granderson sat, but came in as an eighth-inning pinch hitter, grounding out.
Lucas Duda, 1-for-20 against lefties this season, was out for the second straight night, but popped out in the ninth as a pinch hitter.
Collins did give Michael Conforto, 3-for-20 against southpaws heading into the game, a shot, but he was 0-for-4 hitting out of the sixth spot.