LOS ANGELES — When Francisco Lindor hits a home run, the Mets usually win.
Monday night at Dodger Stadium, he took right-hander Dustin May deep to right field to lead off the first game of a four-game series against the defending World Series champs.
But the Dodgers usually win when Shohei Ohtani does, well, what Shohei Ohtani does.
Ohtani cut the Mets’ lead in half in the bottom of the seventh with a 424-foot moonshot off Max Kranick. Then, he tied the game in the bottom of the ninth with a sacrifice fly to send the game into extra innings, only 10 days after the teams played 13 of them. This time, it was the Mets who outlasted the Dodgers in a 4-3 win, their 27th victory that featured a homer by Lindor.
“When he goes, pretty much everyone goes,” said manager Carlos Mendoza.
Lindor gave the Mets the start they needed and Francisco Alvarez and Jose Butto sealed the win in the end. But it was the five scoreless innings that Paul Blackburn gave that was crucial in putting the Mets in a position to win.
Alvarez led off the top of the 10th with a leadoff double off Dodgers closer Tanner Scott, scoring the automatic runner to put the Mets (38-22) back ahead. Lindor followed with an RBI single, giving them a two-run lead. It wasn’t much, but in a game with thin margins, everything counts.
The backstop has not produced the way he or the Mets would have liked this season after a late start with a spring training injury. He’s swinging late on fastballs and missing on breaking balls. But he didn’t miss on Scott’s 1-1 four-seamer, driving it to right field.
“That was huge,” Lindor said. “He’s been working extremely hard and he’s been grinding. He’s been going good, as I like to say.”
The Dodgers (36-24) didn’t make it easy on the Mets in the bottom of the 10th. Down to two relievers — left-hander Jose Castillo and right-hander Jose Butto — Mendoza went to Castillo to start the inning to face left-handed Freddie Freeman, right-handed Andy Pages and left-handed Max Muncy. Castillo walked Freeman and gave up an RBI single to Pages. He struck out Muncy to bring up another lefty, Michael Conforto.
The former Mets outfielder was announced as the next hitter and got all the way to the plate before L.A. manager Dave Roberts pinch-hit for him with catcher Will Smith. The Mets went to Butto, their last remaining reliever, for the final two outs.
“I just thought [have Castillo] get two out of three lefties, and then have the righty ready in case they pinch-hit,” Mendoza said. “And I’m glad they came through.”
But no one came through like Blackburn.
The L.A. lineup has been a nightmare matchup for the Amazin’s in recent history. They control the strike zone with remarkable patience, daring pitchers to miss. The Mets walked far too many hitters in a six-game playoff series last fall, Muncy especially. The ones they didn’t walk made them pay.
Blackburn (1-0) limited the Dodgers to only three hits and a walk, while striking out three — including Ohtani twice, drawing on his experience facing him with the Oakland A’s when the two-way superstar was with the Los Angeles Angels.
“He is obviously one of my best hitters in the game,” Blackburn said. “But I think just being able to go back and know that I know what he looks like in the box, and that I’ve seen him a lot, that kind of helps.”
Blackburn used his cutter to limit hard contact with lefties and a kept righties off balance with a changeup, a sinker and a slider. He threw 77 pitches, not a single one was a fastball.
“When it comes to me as a pitcher, I’m a guy that I can’t really rely on a single pitch,” he said. “I kind of let the hitters kind of tell me what the pitches I should throw to them. For that lineup over there, it’s a lot of damage from the lefties. Being able to get that cutter in and kind of get it off the barrel, it was huge.”
It was the first start for Blackburn since Aug. 23. After coming to the Mets at the trade deadline, Blackburn had a serious of strange injuries, getting hit by a line drive on his hand, and then suffering from a spinal fluid leak that required surgery. He was on track to start the season on time before waking up with a swollen knee before Opening Day. Getting back on the mound was an emotional win as well.
But now the Mets will likely move him to the bullpen. He was the sixth starter this time around, and with Sean Manaea and Frankie Montas working toward June returns, Blackburn will be moving to a long relief role.
“I think my role here is a little different,” he said. “I’m just ready to pitch when they want me to pitch. I’m not blind to the guys that are coming off the IL here soon. It’s just being able to take the ball whenever they want me to take the ball.”
