By RONALD BLUM AP Baseball Writer
NEW YORK — On a night of misplayed comebackers, the New York Mets put themselves in a need of yet another comeback.
Luis Severino twice botched grounders, leading to a pair of unearned runs in the second inning. And after the Mets loaded the bases with one out in the bottom half, Francisco Alvarez and Francisco Lindor both struck out against Walker Buehler.
The Dodgers sizzled and the Mets fizzled in an 8-0 loss on Wednesday that gave the Dodgers a 2-1 lead in the National League Championship Series.
“We got beat 9-0 the first game, then we came back and won Game 2. I don’t see why we can’t come back and do that tomorrow,” said Mets reliever Reed Garrett, who allowed Kiké Hernández’s two-run, sixth-inning homer that made it 4-0.
Severino put on Max Muncy leading off the second with the first of seven walks by Mets pitchers and Teoscar Hernández hit a tapper in front of the plate. Alvarez tried for the lead runner, but his throw hit Muncy.
“Maybe tried to do a little too much there,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said.
Gavin Lux hit a one-hopper to Severino, a Gold Glove finalist, that easily could have been turned into a double play, but the ball hit off the pitcher’s glove and Severino’s only option when he picked it up was to throw to first for an out.
Will Smith, extending his at-bat to nine pitches, followed with another one-hopper. This one deflected off of Severino’s glove and rolled toward shortstop for an infield hit as Muncy scored the game’s first run. Three pitches later, Tommy Edman’s sacrifice fly built a 2-0 lead.
“I feel like my glove messed everything up in that inning there,” Severino said. “I should have caught those. One, it should have been an easy double play. The other one, I should have stopped the guy going to home plate.”
Jose Iglesias’ single between walks to J.D. Martinez and Tyrone Taylor loaded the bases in the bottom half. Alvarez, 1 for 21 with the bases loaded in his regular-season career, took a 2-and-2 fastball on the outside corner for a called third strike.
That brought up Lindor, a .336 hitter with the bases loaded over 10 major league seasons. He had erased a one-run, sixth-inning deficit with his grand slam off of Philadelphia’s Carlos Estévez in the NL Division Series Game 4 clincher. This time Lindor swung over a full-count knuckle-curve.
“He does a really good job of tunneling,” Lindor said. “It comes from the same spot as the fastball and then it drops.”
Buehler walked off the mound, shouting and pounding his bare hand into his glove. The 30-year-old right-hander returned to the major leagues in May following Tommy John surgery and is a different pitcher than he was when he became a two-time All-Star.
“In 2018, 2019, 2020 I would have thrown a fastball,” he said.
Shohei Ohtani provided the night’s most memorable moment with a three-run homer in the eighth against Tylor Megill that soared over the right-field foul pole. New York fell behind in a postseason series for the first time this October, and Citi Field was less than half-full by the ninth inning as many in the sellout crowd of 43,883 had their fill of frustration.
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New York has been blanked in both losses while getting seven hits and striking out 20 times. The Mets’ NLCS batting average is down to .179, with Lindor and Pete Alonso both 1 for 11, Brandon Nimmo 1 for 10 and Alvarez 1 for 9.
Mets pitchers have walked 22.
“They’re not going to chase as much,” Mendoza said. “We’ve got to not only get ahead but we’ve got to continue to stay on the attack and execute pitches. If we get behind in counts, they’re going to make us pay.”
After starting the season 0-5 and dropping to 22-33 when the Dodgers swept a three-game series at Citi Field in May, the Mets are confident they can rebound.
“You got to flush this one as fast as you can,” Lindor said.