Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford stay hot as Dodgers top Mets

Adrian Gonzalez turned on the power, Carl Crawford stayed hot, and the Dodgers held on for a 9-4 win over the Mets in Tuesday night's series opener at Citi Field.

But they may have lost Juan Uribe, who pulled up lame after hitting a ninth inning double, appearing to re-injure the right hamstring strain that caused him to miss five games last week.

Crawford walked in the second, stole second base, advanced to third on a throwing error by Juan Centeno, then scored on a single by Josh Beckett for a 1-0 lead.

The Mets tied it with a rally in the bottom of the inning, punctuated by a two-out infield single by Wilmer Flores to the hole at shortstop.

Gonzalez, who doubled earlier but was stranded, hit a two-run home run in the fifth inning to reclaim the lead for the Dodgers, his second home run in as many games and 11th on the season. Matt Kemp followed with a double on a fly ball over the head of circuitous route taker Chris Young in center field, then scored on a single to right field by Crawford.

Crawford then turned on the wheels again, stealing his second base of the game then advanced to third on a wild pitch by Jeurys Familia that Centeno showed no interest in blocking or catching. A single to center field by Uribe scored Crawford for a 6-1 lead.

Crawford was 2-for-4 with a a walk, and has a hit in each of his last 11 starts, and is hitting .455 (20-for-44) in his last 13 games.

Beckett put that lead to the test in the fifth inning, allowing three straight singles to load the bases with one out. He struck out Daniel Murphy, then got the better of David Wright in a nine-pitch at-bat that resulted in a ground out to second base.

An inning later, things did not go Beckett's way.

Curtis Granderson greeted Beckett with a towering home run to right field, followed by a Chris Young double to center and a Lucas Duda two-run shot to right field, cutting the lead to 6-4. Beckett remained in the game, but after walking Flores was removed, voicing his displeasure was home plate umpire Larry Vanover's strike zone on his way out.

J.P. Howell got through the sixth inning cleanly, then started the seventh with a strikeout, but the Mets threatened again with a pair of singles to chase Howell. Chris Withrow entered and promptly hit his first batter, loading the bases with one out.

Withrow being Withrow, he ran the count full to Duda before inducing a pop out. Withrow then got Flores to ground out to end the threat and preserve the two-run lead.

The Dodgers had their chances to break it open in the eighth inning, loading the bases with two outs. Pinch hitter Scott Van Slyke rallied from down 0-2 to a full count but ultimately flew out to left to end the threat.

The Dodgers were 0-for-2 on the night with the bases loaded, including a strikeout by Yasiel Puig in the second. On the season the Dodgers are just 3-for-33 (.091) with the bases loaded with a .230 OPS that is the worst in the majors.

The Mets were 0-for-4 on the night with the bases juiced, on on the season are 6-for-40 with a .425 OPS that ranks 27th.

The Dodgers did tack on three more runs in the ninth inning, including Puig's third hit of the night to drive in the Dodgers' ninth run.

The Dodgers have scored 26 runs in four games on the road trip, 6.5 per game, and on the season are averaging 4.88 runs per game on the road, second in the National League to the Mets.

Up next

The Dodgers welcome back Hyun-Jin Ryu to the mound on Wednesday, with the only question remaining of which pitcher will he replace? New York counters with Jacob deGrom, making his second big league start.

Tuesday particulars

Home runs: Adrian Gonzalez (11); Curtis Granderson (6), Lucas Duda (6)

WP - Josh Beckett (2-1): 5+ IP, 8 hits, 4 runs, 2 walks, 6 strikeouts

LP - Rafael Montero (0-2): 4⅓ IP, 7 hits, 5 runs, 4 walks, 4 strikeouts