Mets vs. Dodgers Recap: Utley's awful slide helps Dodgers beat Mets in Game 2

A game that started well for the Mets ended terribly, and their NLDS series with the Dodgers is tied at one game apiece. Any Mets loss would have been frustrating, but the way this one went was probably as frustrating as a game could possibly get.

Zack Greinke looked decidedly human early, as he gave up solo home runs to Yoenis Cespedes and Michael Conforto in the second inning. Noah Syndergaard came out of the gate throwing hard—with several pitches at or above 100 miles per hour—and held the Dodgers to one run through six innings before taking the mound to start the seventh.

Syndergaard recorded an out in that inning but issued a walk to Enrique Hernandez and a pinch-hit single to Chase Utley to put runners on the corners. Terry Collins turned to Bartolo Colon, who gave up a relatively hard-hit ground ball that Daniel Murphy fielded and tossed to Ruben Tejada at second base. But Utley slid extremely late—a dirty slide if there ever were one—and broke Tejada’s leg.

And when the play went to replay review, Major League Baseball decided Utley was safe—even though neither he nor Tejada touched second base. Even those who made the ruling didn’t sound too confident in their explanation of it after the game.

After the long delay to take Tejada off the field on a cart, Addison Reed came in for the Mets and gave up a two-run double to Adrian Gonzalez and a one-run double to Justin Turner, effectively ending the game.

Game 3 can’t get here soon enough, but Game 2 was one to forget.

SB Nation GameThreads

* Amazin' Avenue GameThread
* True Blue LA GameThread

Win Probability Added

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Big winners: none
Big losers: Addison Reed, -30.8% WPA, Bartolo Colon, -15.2% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Yoenis Cespedes hits a solo home run in the second, +11.6% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Adrian Gonzalez’s two-run double in the seventh, -32.7% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: -36.7% WPA
Total batter WPA: -13.3% WPA
GWRBI!: Adrian Gonzalez