NEW YORK — Dodgers reliever Will Klein had just induced the Mets’ Marcus Semien to whiff on a high heater. In a 1-1 count, Klein, who had struggled with command, went back to the fastball, knowing he could throw it for a strike.
What Klein wanted to be an outside pitch drifted in, and Semien connected for a three-run home run that sent the Dodgers to an 8-3 loss Sunday at Citi Field.
“Gave him a fastball, and he’s ready for it, and put it out there,” Klein said. “When you’re ahead and you’re dictating things, that’s a pop-up, or they have to think about other stuff when I’m throwing off-speed in the zone. But I haven’t been, and so it’s really easy just throwing a fastball there, even if it’s in a spot that should be harder to hit, if you’re behind and the guy is a good hitter, it’s a lot easier for them to make that commitment and put a barrel to it.”
Despite failing to pull off the sweep, the Dodgers went 6-3 on their East Coast swing and won series against the New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies and Mets.
“It’s great,” manager Dave Roberts said Saturday night. “It seems like we’ve been on the road a long time, but the travel has been nice as far as staying in this time zone. We’re finding ways to win. So that’s the main thing. That’s the object of the game.”
The Dodgers’ All-Stars, along with Roberts and his coaching staff, left for Philadelphia two weeks ago. The rest of the team met them in New York for three games against the Yankees. Then they traveled to Philadelphia for a three-game set, took a detour to Washington to visit the White House before returning to New York.
“It’s been a long road trip — especially for the guys who went to Philly for the All-Star Game,” right fielder Kyle Tucker said. “Being able to come out of the break and play some really good teams and put together really competitive at-bats and great innings from our pitching staff is huge. Some of the guys are kind of grinding in terms of how long they’ve been away from L.A. It’s kind of part of it. You’ve got to come out and play regardless and they’ve done a great job of that.”
Even so, the Dodgers (67-39) played cleaner baseball on this extended road trip — a couple baserunning mistakes aside — than they did in the homestand before the break.
Maybe the Dodgers just needed time off to reset.
“I thought we played really good baseball all road trip,” Freddie Freeman said. “I am looking forward to going home.”
Against the Mets (44-62) on Sunday, the first couple innings didn’t look promising. After Shohei Ohtani led with a double and Max Muncy drew a two-out walk, both were left stranded.
The Mets took the lead in the first when Dodgers starter Emmet Sheehan gave up a lead-off double to A.J. Ewing before Francisco Lindor sent a low changeup into shallow right field for an RBI single.
The Dodgers’ three-up, three-down second inning ended when Teoscar Hernández tried to stretch a single into a double and ran into an out. Then, Sheehan hit Tyrone Taylor with a pitch to start the bottom half of the inning.
Dodgers pitcher Emmet Sheehan delivers during the second inning of an 8-3 loss to the New York Mets on Sunday.
(Yuki Iwamura / Associated Press)
Sheehan retired the next three batters as the Dodgers started to take control. They pulled into the lead with a two-run third inning, powered by doubles from Eliézer Alfonzo — his second double in as many appearances — and Freeman.
The Dodgers manufactured another run the next inning with a pair of singles, an error by Mets first baseman Jared Young, and a run-scoring double play.
Sheehan gave up one run and three hits, striking out five over five innings.
As the Dodgers bullpen took over in the sixth, however, the game slipped away. Jack Dreyer walked two batters and recorded just one out in the sixth inning before Roberts replaced him with Evan Phillips.
In a 1-1 count, Phillips threw a sinker on the inside edge of the strike zone, and Taylor lifted it into the left-field stands for a go-ahead three-run homer. Phillips, who last week talked about rewiring his rehab mindset, has already surrendered four home runs in just seven outings.
“I think some of it was probably just me really trusting him,” Roberts said. “And I really do trust him. But there’s some work, some rust that needs to be kind of dusted off. So I think right now I’m going to kind of give him different looks and get his feet kind of under him and get some traction.”
A run-scoring passed ball from Dalton Rushing and Semien’s three-run blast in the seventh ultimately sealed the win for the Mets.
Klein, who issued two walks and gave up a single before the homer, said he’s been working to recapture the feeling of driving down the mound, as opposed to getting stuck over the rubber.
“It turned back into, ‘Please just throw a strike,’ instead of when I was going really well, it’s just, ‘I’m going to challenge you right here, and you’re not going to get it.’” Klein said. “So I think I just need to do a better job getting back to that and finding where I was a month ago.”
