Poor execution hurts Dodgers in loss to Mets

The baseball rolled into Howie Kendrick’s glove, and Scott Kazmir appeared on the verge of a tidy ending to his evening. Kazmir had allowed the New York Mets to score in each of the three innings he pitched on Monday until he found his foot. Kendrick reached into his glove for a simple throw to first base to record the last out of the sixth.
Then he dropped the ball.
The error by Kendrick extended Kazmir’s outing and soured his exit in a 4-2 Los Angeles Dodgers defeat at Dodger Stadium. Kazmir promptly yielded a run-scoring double to Steven Matz, the opposing pitcher. He did not finish the sixth inning.
The run was not decisive — the Dodgers trailed by a run at the time _ but the play underscored the imprecise execution that harmed the club during the first five weeks of the season. The sixth week of 2016 extended the pattern.
On offense, the Dodgers sputter from day to day, as core contributors such as Adrian Gonzalez, Yasiel Puig and Justin Turner remain mired in slumps. The trio had a chance to erase the deficit in the eighth, when Gonzalez reached on an error and Turner walked. The rally fizzled when Puig struck out and Trayce Thompson popped out in foul territory. The Dodgers did not record a hit after the fourth inning.
The two clubs met for the first time since the Mets ended the Dodgers season last October in a National League division series. The Mets entered in fine form, with their lineup and their quartet of young, talented starting pitchers all operating in working order. The Dodgers had captured a series over the weekend in Toronto, but still had not made up for a six-game losing streak on the last homestand.
The day started with anti-climax. With the Mets starting Matz, a left-handed pitcher, the Dodgers sat second baseman Chase Utley, who broke the leg of Mets shortstop Ruben Tejada by sliding into second base in Game 2 of the division series. Utley was not in the lineup and Tejada now plays for St. Louis, but the topic of retribution still dominated the pregame discussion.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said he did not expect the Mets to target Utley during this series. Mets Manager Terry Collins offered a more cryptic response. He indicated he had not spoken to his players about the situation. But, he added, “We’ve got some pretty wily veterans in that room.”
One of those veterans, three-time All-Star outfielder Curtis Granderson, changed the conversation on the game’s first pitch. Kazmir opened with a 92-mph fastball over the middle. Granderson drove it into the right-field stands. An inning later, Kazmir fell victim to a second home run. Mets catcher Kevin Plawecki pounced on a changeup at the thighs. This blast headed over the fence in left.
Kazmir kept the Mets in the park in the third, but he still surrendered a run. The arm of left fielder Enrique Hernandez saved him twice. On the first occasion, Hernandez gunned down Granderson at second base after a leadoff single. Granted a break, Kazmir created more trouble for himself. Kazmir hit shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera with a pitch. He walked third baseman David Wright. A single by outfielder Yoenis Cespedes swelled New York’s lead to three. Kazmir walked first baseman Lucas Duda to load the bases.
Hernandez came through again after Mets outfielder Juan Lagares popped up into shallow left centre. Hernandez sprinted toward the diamond for the out, and caught Cespedes drifting too far from second base for the double play. The Dodgers closed the gap in the fourth. Turner dunked a one-out single just inside the right-field line. Two batters later, Thompson took an elevated sinker from Matz and lifted it over the low wall in the right-field corner. After singles by A.J. Ellis and Charlie Culberson, the Dodgers missed a chance to even the score when Kazmir struck out.
Kazmir picked up two outs to start the sixth. He walked second baseman Wilmer Flores, but when Plawecki hit a grounder to Kendrick, the inning looked over. It was not. Kazmir fed Matz, a .227-hitter entering the night, a lifeless changeup. Matz chopped the ball into left.
“It’s got to sync together,” Roberts said. “Right now, it’s one thing on, one thing off. That’s why we’re .500 right now.” Roberts intervened and made a pitching change. Kazmir watched the rest of the inning from the dugout. A look of disbelief covered his face.

RESULTS
Washington 5 Detroit 4               
NY Yankees 6 Kansas City 3               
Miami 4 Milwaukee 1
Boston 14 Oakland 7               
Cincinnati 3 Pittsburgh 2
White Sox 8 Texas 4 (12 innings)
Houston 7 Cleveland 1
Arizona 10 Colorado 5               
NY Mets 4 LA Dodgers 2               
Seattle 5 Tampa Bay 2               
Toronto 3San Francisco 1