Dodgers dig long ball, hit 7 to beat Mets
Justin Turner capped a homer-happy Sunday afternoon for the Dodgers by hitting a solo shot in the 11th inning to lift Los Angeles to an 8-7 win over the New York Mets at Citi Field.
Enrique Hernandez and Cody Bellinger hit two solo homers apiece for the Dodgers, who swept the three-game series and have won nine of 12, while Max Muncy and Joc Pederson had a solo shot apiece. The seven homers Sunday are tied for the second-highest single-game total in team history.
Kevin Plawecki had a homer and a career-high four RBIs for the Mets, who have lost six straight and 18 of their last 22.
Turner, who played for the Mets from 2010 through 2013, began the game on the bench but entered in a double-switch in the eighth. He struck out in the ninth before homering off Chris Flexen (0-1), the Mets' seventh pitcher, to a cap a wild back-and-forth affair.
Daniel Hudson (2-2), the Dodgers' seventh pitcher, earned the win after allowing two hits over two scoreless innings.
Homers by Hernandez and Muncy gave the Dodgers a 2-0 lead before emergency Mets starter Jerry Blevins could record an out.
Blevins, who started the "bullpen day" game after scheduled starter Jason Vargas went on the disabled list Sunday with a strained right calf, retired the next six batters he faced and finished with three strikeouts in his first big league start following 532 relief appearances.
The Mets tied the game thanks to RBI doubles by Plawecki and Wilmer Flores off Rich Hill in the second and third innings before Bellinger hit his first homer off Tim Peterson to give the Dodgers the lead in the fourth.
New York went ahead on Asdrubal Cabrera's two-run homer in the fifth, but Hernandez homered off Chris Beck to tie the game in the sixth.
The Dodgers went up 7-4 against the Mets' top set-up man, Anthony Swarzak, who gave up a homer to Pederson in the seventh and a run-scoring double play to Matt Kemp followed by Bellinger's second homer in the eighth.
But the Mets came back during an eight-pitch span in the eighth, when Jose Bautista drew a walk against Erik Goeddel and went to third on a single by Dominic Smith before Plawecki's three-run homer.
Hill allowed four runs on five hits and one walk while striking out five over five innings.
--Field Level Media
