Mets feast on Dodgers pitching in 8-0 victory to take series

LOS ANGELES-Welcome to Mets baseball in 2015: They pitch great, they hit like a bunch of amateurs, and they show up at the ballpark every day praying that fate smiles upon them.

Matz (2-0) allowed only two hits over six shutout innings in which he also walked two and hit a batter. Snydergaard has 59 strikeouts through his first 10 big league starts, fourth in Mets history behind Dwight Gooden (80), Nolan Ryan (78) and Matt Harvey (70). Wilmer Flores followed with a single off Jansen’s glove as the right-hander tried to backhand the ball. Curtis Granderson drilled a two-run double down the leftfield line to spark a three-run fourth inning. “He’s a lot of fun to watch”. “It’s been great”, Matz said.

“It was an unbelievable experience, right from the get-go when I stepped out there”, Snydergaard said. Today was a little bit different.

Matz was making his second big-league start after a storybook debut at Citi Field last week. That is his third-longest streak of his career while being just 3 and 1/2 innings off the best.

Mike Bolsinger (4-3) gave up four runs and nine hits in five innings, having made it past five innings just once in his last four starts. Murphy was safe at second on the play. “He hung in there”. “Not the consistent winning streaks and things like that we were accustomed to early, but I think we’re doing OK. Then all of a sudden everything got out of whack and I couldn’t find the strike zone, so it was a battle”. “He kind of limited the damage”. They were held to just three hits on the game, marking another game on the season in which their offense struggled to produce.

The Mets are 17-27 in games where they allow one or more home runs.

Flores had a career-high four hits while driving in three runs and finished the three-game series 10 for 13. The Dodgers had just two singles off him – an infield hit by Kike Hernandez in the first inning and a leadoff single by A.J.

Two innings later, the Dodgers had runners on first and second with one out.

“He had to work hard”, Mets manager Terry Collins said.

The Mets (42-41) broke open the game in the seventh, when Yasiel Puig misplayed Juan Lagares’ fly to right into a two-run triple. Gonzalez stayed in the game for three innings but was replaced by a pinch-hitter when his spot in the lineup came around again.

Puig went 0 for 4 with two strikeouts and rookie Joc Pederson was hitless in three at-bats with a strikeout.

Adrian Gonzalez, who had homered in consecutive games against the Mets, was drilled in the wrist by Matz in the first inning and later exited the game with a right-hand contusion. RHP Carlos Frias went on the 15-day DL retroactive to Wednesday with lower back tightness, a problem he had in his previous two starts, going only five innings in both.

Harvey didn’t complete at least six innings for the second time this season and tied a career-high with five walks. LH Eric Surkamp was to be called up from the minors, but Mattingly refused to confirm he would start.