Granderson, Mets beat Dodgers 13-7, take 2-1 lead in NLDS

Kershaw has made two starts in the playoffs on three days’ rest, compiling a 2.25 ERA with 15 strikeouts in 12 innings.

Game 5: (if needed) at Los Angeles: 5:07 p.m. Thurs. He’s right when he says, “the adrenaline takes over” in late October. “You don’t really feel exhausted or anything like that”, Kershaw said. “You know, it’s the playoffs”. He posted a 2.27 ERA during six starts, including six shutout innings against the Dodgers.

Don Mattingly, the manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers, stresses the importance of perspective as well. “I’m always pretty confident when he’s pitching”. He was on the mound for New York’s four-run fourth, a frame punctuated by the second-deck shot by Cespedes, the first Mets player with three hits, three runs and three RBIs in a postseason game. Harvey’s mere mortal performance was sheltered by his offense, led by Curtis Granderson, Travis d’Arnaud, and Yoenis Cespedes, all of whom knocked in multiple runs off of the Dodgers’ pair of lefties, Brett Anderson and Alex Wood, who combined for five innings of batting practice against the suddenly mighty Mets offense. Mattingly and the Dodgers made this decision Monday afternoon, before Los Angeles faced elimination. The 24-year-old left-hander, though, hasn’t pitched in the majors since September 24 due to back spasms brought on from sleeping on a couch. Even though they’re in a commanding position in this Series, they’re nevertheless asking rookie Steven Matz to out-pitch Kershaw, not to mention deal with a crowd that’ll border on riotous.

Harvey was able to get the Dodgers down 1-2-3 in the first inning to get the crowd going, but it was tough sailing from there on out. Vina fielded a ground-ball, and proceeded to tag Belle for the out…but not before Belle crushed him and sent him to the ground. “I know Larry all too well”. “I’m very fortunate to be a part of it”.

Dodgers second baseman Howie Kendrick slapped a one-hopper up the middle just past Bartolo Colon’s glove, starting what looked like a potential double play until Chase Utley violently slid into shortstop Ruben Tejada, breaking up the double play – and Tejada’s leg – in the process.

Utley was ruled safe on the play, but Major League Baseball later suspended him for two games for an improper slide.

“The greatest retaliation is winning”, Mets outfielder Michael Cuddyer said. Things were looking up for Los Angeles way back in the top of the second inning when they loaded the bases with nobody out, then Yasmani Grandal found a break, hitting a two-run single that didn’t somehow end up in an infielder’s glove, after a 4-for-88 slump.

Steve Brener, a Dodgers director of publicity in the 1970s and ’80s and now a team consultant, stood between a pair of reporters and Utley after the game and said Utley did not want to answer questions. 186 against left-handers this season, while Kendrick batted.291. But when Granderson’s two-out double gave the Mets the lead in the bottom of the frame, Mets fans puffed out their chests, emboldened by their team’s performance and the own collective mission to harass the Dodgers. Anderson (6 ERs in 3 IP) did not give L.A. the non-Kershaw/Greinke buffer it was hoping for, and the bullpen was ineffective.

Granderson, though, has been outstanding in this series with three straight two-hit games. He has lost five consecutive starts over the last three postseasons and allowed three runs and four hits while striking out 11 over 6 2/3 innings in Game 1.