Dodgers mount a four-run rally in the bottom ninth to beat the Mets

For more than three hours Wednesday night, it appeared as though the Dodgers offense would not salvage the club for the second consecutive day. Walker Buehler had endured a rocky outing. The bullpen had been blasted again. They entered the seventh inning down five runs and the ninth inning down three against the New York Mets, tasked to overcome the deficit against Edwin Diaz, one of baseball’s best closers. Their first losing streak in over a month seemed imminent.

But over the span of a few minutes, the Dodgers, flexing their muscles, unleashed the relentlessness that has come to define their offense through the season’s first two months and rallied to defeat the Mets 9-8 with two home runs, two doubles and, finally, Alex Verdugo’s game-winning sacrifice fly without recording an out in the ninth inning.

“For us to continue to fight, to scratch and claw to get back in there,” manager Dave Roberts said, “that just defines this ballclub.”

Joc Pederson and Max Muncy ignited the rally with consecutive home runs to begin the inning. Justin Turner followed with a double down the left-field line, bringing up Cody Bellinger. The M-V-P chants bubbled as he was announced. First base was opened, but the Mets decided to pitch to the slugger, who responded by trying to bunt down to the left side against the infield shift. He failed and swung through the next pitch to fall behind 0 and 2. But after taking a ball, he swatted a 97-mph fastball for a double, the Dodgers’ eighth of the game, to drive in Turner and tie the score.

With first base open, the Mets intentionally walked Corey Seager, who doubled twice and homered, to face Matt Beaty. The 26-year-old rookie fell behind 0 and 2 and stayed there, fouling off three pitches until he hit a grounder to shortstop Amed Rosario a couple of steps away from second base. Rosario gathered the ball and, while looking at Bellinger dashing for third base, tried to step on second base to get the sure out. But he miscalculated the distance and missed the base with his first attempt. His second try was too late and Seager slid in safely, loading the bases for Verdugo, who lifted a slider deep enough to left field for Bellinger to race home.

The confident rookie stepped into the batter’s box with a plan: he would give himself one chance to play hero with a home run. So when Diaz began the at-bat with a slider fell out of the strike zone, Verdugo unloaded a mighty hack.

“I think I was like three feet away from hitting it,” Verdugo said. “After that, I was like, ‘Yeah, that’s not me. Let’s tone it back down.’”

Verdugo fouled back the next two pitches, both fastballs, before he took two pitches to even the count. Diaz then left a pitch up in the zone that Verdugo pounced on.

“He never ceases to amaze us,” Roberts said. “He’s just that guy that wants to be in that spot. He wants to be the postgame interviewee. He likes that spotlight and it’s good to have him in that spot.”

Wednesday’s initial pitching matchup was a duel between two of the hardest-throwing starters in baseball. Buehler began the game fourth in the majors in average fastball velocity. Mets right-hander Noah Syndergaard topped the list. Countering the velocity was paramount for both offenses.

The Mets’ game plan against Buehler was apparent the first time Buehler went through their lineup; they were primed to pounce on fastballs early in the count. Buehler’s turbulence began in the first inning when Pete Alonso hit a first-pitch, 98-mph fastball over the wall in right-center field. Adeuny Hechavarria’s double on a second-pitch cutter in the second inning drove in the Mets’ third run.

New York’s loud contact prompted an adjustment from Buehler, who began mixing in his curveball more. The modification generated success. After the Mets were five for nine with two strikeouts the first time through the lineup, Buehler held them hitless with a walk and four strikeouts his second time through it.

His third time was far bumpier. Replicating the first inning, Dominic Smith singled and Alonso hit a cutter to bust a 3-3 tie in the fifth inning. Buehler finished the inning with 95 pitches. He didn’t emerge to throw another one as he failed to pitch into the sixth inning for the first time in eight starts. He gave up five runs and seven hits. He walked one and struck out six.

Syndergaard commenced his outing overwhelming the Dodgers. Boasting a fastball that touches triple digits, a 93-mph changeup and a devastating curveball, he struck out the first two batters he faced, Pederson and Muncy, on three pitches each. Muncy’s strikeout was cinched with a 100-mph fastball. The Dodgers adjusted and hit three consecutive doubles for two runs in the second inning. They tied the score in the third inning on Turner’s single, which came after Muncy doubled. But Syndergaard rediscovered his rhythm and held the Dodgers scoreless over his final three innings, concluding his outing after throwing 116 pitches.

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The Dodgers gave the ball to Pedro Baez in the sixth inning and he surrendered a run. Down three runs, Julio Urias was summoned in the seventh and Rosario welcomed the left-hander with a home run on the first pitch. Three pitches later, Smith made it back-to-back home runs, giving the Mets an 8-3 lead.

The blasts deflated the ballpark. Fans began streaming out. But the Dodgers immediately began chipping away in the seventh inning when Turner delivered a two-out run-scoring single. The hit did more than cut the Dodgers’ deficit to four runs — Roberts planned on removing Turner from the game if the Dodgers didn’t score in the frame and pull within “slam range.”

A short time later, after Seager led off the eighth with a home run and Scott Alexander logged a scoreless ninth inning, the Dodgers encountered Diaz for the second time in two nights, this time trailing by three runs. It didn’t take long for the Dodgers’ lineup to erase that margin and begin the celebration.

“You just got to sometimes just sit and marvel at them,” Roberts said.

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Twitter: @jorgecastillo