The Democrat, who as mayor attended both this year and last year’s Mets home openers and was at all three games of their series against the Red Sox, said he expects New Yorkers will make known their disgust with Utley if he is at Monday night’s Game 3.
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The Dodgers trail the best-of-five series 2-1 after Monday’s loss at Citi Field.
Instead, the Mets provided fireworks of a different sort on Monday-with their bats. But the reward for his questionable play might be a trip to the National League Championship Series.
NOTES: Dodgers ace LHP Clayton Kershaw will start Game 4 on three days’ rest.
Kendrick hit a home run in the ninth inning for a Dodger upside, should you need one. Those numbers aren’t bad, but they could give up the necessary runs for the Mets to pull out a huge win.
But that doesn’t mean his brutal takeout slide of Mets shortstop Ruben Tejada on Saturday during Game 2 of the Dodgers’ National League Division Series against New York wasn’t a dirty play.
Utley appealed his two-game suspension and because Major League Baseball could not schedule the hearing before first pitch of Game 3, Utley will be allowed to play until his hearing is held.
So with Utley in the dugout, chants of “We want Utley!” swirled around the ballpark throughout the night. Trailing 2-1 in the seventh, the Dodgers put up four runs in the inning, thanks in part to a controversial slide by Chase Utley when he was attempting to break up a double play.
As expected, Utley got a going over from the fans during the introductions, but since he was not in the starting lineup, the issue was quickly pushed aside.
“He was tough, tough-minded”, Kershaw said, “but at the same time he was very honest, which I thought was pretty cool”.
Tejada, wearing a walking cast and using a cane, limped out during the pre-game ceremony to a raucous ovation from the crowd. “Chase feels awful about Ruben Tejada’s injury and everyone who knows him knows that he would never intentionally hurt anybody”.
Terry Collins anxious, because managers are paid to worry. “I just think it’s because you’re not making the pitches”.
Then the game started, and so did the party.
Perhaps it would have been most fitting if Harvey, the flamboyant righthander from Fitch High in Groton, had fashioned a signature gem in the first playoff game in Queens since Carlos Beltran took that regrettable third strike to end the 2006 NLCS. One start came against the Dodgers, a July 5 game in Los Angeles in which Matz scattered two hits and two walks in six shutout innings.
But the Mets made sure it didn’t matter. It was 3-0 Dodgers early and Mets’ fans sphincters’ clenched.
Granderson’s bases-clearing double was the big hit, giving the Mets a 4-3 lead in the second. Travis d’Arnaud got the job done in that group, picking up an RBI single that knocked in Yoenis Cespedes. Cespedes, the star outfielder who arrived at the July 31 trade deadline and propelled the Mets into first place, finished with three hits, including his prodigious blast. He is one of the more underrated pitchers in baseball, even though he is talked about a good amount. This time, they will face him on three days of rest.
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Finally, Gonzalez found home plate after a double from Turner to get the 5-2 win and tie the series. “You do want it to be about back to the field”, he said.
