July 24th 2015 -- Dodgers 7, Mets 2

Friday night in Flushing, Michael Conforto made his long awaited ML debut, but the Dodgers out powered and overwhelmed the Mets 7-2.  Conforto batted 7^th in the lineup and drove in the Mets first run of the game in the 5^th.  Lucas Duda doubled and advanced to third on a grounder to short. Conforto then grounded out to 2^nd to bring home Duda. The Dodgers beat up on Jon Niese, breaking his string of 8 quality starts in a row.  The Dodgers scored 1 in the 1^st, 2 in the 2^nd and 3 in the 3^rd to take a 6-0 lead.  Former Met Justin Turner made it 1-0 in the 1^st with an RBI double.  Pitch Ian Thomas hit into a double play bringing home run # 2. Joc Pederson’s RBI double make it 3-0. In the 3^rd Turner hit a solo homer, his 13^th to make it 4-0. Then Yasiel Puig hit a 2 run homer, his 6^th to cap the Dodgers scoring.  The Mets made it 6-2 in the 6th on a RBI single by Daniel Murphy. Niese whose wife is expecting this weekend pitched like his mind was elsewhere. He only lasted 3 innings while allowing 8 hits 6 runs (all earned) walking 1 and striking out 1. He takes the loss falling to 5-9. Thomas, who spot started for the Dodgers, went 5 innings allowing 3 hits 1 run (earned) striking out 5 improving to 1-1. Carlos Torres pitched 3 scoreless innings in relief for the Mets.  Hansel Robles pitched a scoreless 7^th. In the 8^th he yielded a solo homer to Jimmy Rollins, for Rollins his 2^nd in 2 nights and his 10^th on the year. Alex Torres pitched a scoreless 9th. Ruben Tejada went 2 for 4; he’s hit in 10 of 11 games. Curtis Granderson’s 8 game hitting streak came to an end.  Turner went 3 for 5 with the homer, double and 2 RBI. With the loss the Mets have now lost 3 straight and have dropped the first 2 games of this 4 game set. Overall the Mets are 49-48 and 32-16 at Citi Field.  The Nationals were losing to the Pirates on Friday, so the Mets can stay 3 games behind 1^st place Washington in the NL East if they lose. If they come back to win, the Mets will fall to 4 games back. Saturday is HARVEY day. Matt Harvey (8-7 3.19) looks to stop the bleeding. The Dodgers pitcher is TBD.