Unless you enjoy watching your team flail at the reigning best pitcher of this generation, you are forgiven if you went to sleep early once the Mets fell behind in an eventual 5-0 loss. The Dodgers put up a four-spot in the first against Bartolo Colon, and all you need to know is that when his team scores at least four runs, Clayton Kershaw is now 81-0 in the regular season.
So it got late early when Colon started the game serving up meatballs, as both of his first two pitches were ripped for base hits. Justin Turner then showed at least a little respect for everyone's favorite veteran by waiting till the fourth pitch he saw to rocket a line drive into the outfield for a run-scoring single. Two batters later, Yasmani Grandal launched a 449-foot bomb more than halfway up the bleachers in right-center for a 4-0 advantage, creating an upwards jolt in East Coast Sleep Expectancy graphs.
Unfortunately, those of you who stuck around were exposed to an outbreak of Chase Utley, who hit a second-inning home run on his way to a 3-for-4 night. Currently there is no known cure for Utley; we just have to live with him, and eventually some day he will go away.
Mets highlights were limited. Asdrubal Cabrera continued to impress, with two of the team's three hits and two diving plays in the field. Colon settled down after his rocky start, made a nice scoop on a hard-hit comebacker to rob Yasiel Puig in the fourth, and even induced Joc Pederson into a BartLOLo when the young outfielder lost his helmet taking a big swing and coming up empty in the third. Newly arrived Sean Gilmartin looked good in three innings of mop-up duty, striking out three and walking one.
Kershaw was merciful in that tonight's three-hit, one-walk, 13-strikeout shutout performance only took two hours and 13 minutes to complete. On the season, the three-time Cy Young Award winner now has walked only four in 62 innings while striking out 77, so obviously the Mets don't have to feel particularly bad about this one. Although he now has a 1.17 regular season ERA against New York in ten career starts.
After two straight nights where Mets regulars have not driven in a run, a visit to the Mile-High city might offer some medicine. Matt Harvey looks to build some momentum as he starts the series opener on Friday night against the Rockies' Jon Gray, who is coming off of two strong starts himself.
SB Nation GameThreads
* Amazin' Avenue GameThread
* True Blue LA GameThread
Box scores
Win Probability Added
Source: FanGraphs (What's WPA?)
Big winners: None
Big losers: Bartolo Colon (-32.9% WPA)
Teh aw3s0mest play: Adrian Gonzalez flies out with two runners on and no out in the first (+4.5% WPA)
Teh sux0rest play: Yasmani Grandal hits three-run homer in the first (+18.8% WPA)
Total pitcher WPA: -32.3% WPA
Total batter WPA: -17.7% WPA
GWRBI!: Justin Turner