LOS ANGELES — This certainly won’t suffice if Matt Harvey has any intention of removing Clayton Kershaw from the driver’s seat in the NL Cy Young award race.
With Kershaw and his NL-best 1.88 ERA sitting in the opposing dugout at Dodger Stadium Tuesday night, the Mets ace started strong, but was reduced to a Hollywood B-lister by the middle innings.
Harvey surrendered four runs over the fifth and sixth innings combined in a 4-2 loss to the Dodgers in front of 46,335.
The Mets (54-63) lost their second straight after winning a weekend series in Arizona. This one came with Wilmer Flores on the bench and potentially headed to the disabled list after spraining his right ankle running the bases on Monday.
The Dodgers, who won their seventh straight, have gotten strong pitching in their 22-3 surge since the All-Star break, so last night was hardly an exception, with lefty Hyun-Jin Ryu holding the Mets to one run over seven innings. The Mets went quietly, finishing with seven hits, only three of which came after the fourth inning. Ryu (12-3) won his fifth straight start, and the Dodgers held their opponent to two runs or fewer for a fourth straight game.
Harvey (9-4, 2.23 ERA) followed his first career shutout, last week against the Rockies at Citi Field, with one of his worst performances of the season. Overall, he surrendered four earned runs on eight hits with three strikeouts and two walks over six innings. The Mets will try to avoid getting swept three games when Dillon Gee faces Chris Capuano in tonight’s series finale. Last night’s victory for the Dodgers upped their series unbeaten streak to 16 since the middle of June.
John Buck stroked an RBI single in the ninth to pull the Mets within two, but Kenley Jansen retired pinch-hitter Ike Davis on the first pitch to end the game.
Harvey’s night was finished after allowing a two-run single to A.J. Ellis in the sixth that gave the Dodgers a 4-1 lead. The hit increased Harvey’s sixth-inning ERA to 4.50 this season. In the fifth, his ERA is only 0.38.
Mark Ellis and Yasiel Puig each delivered a single to start the rally before with two outs, A.J. Ellis brought home both runs with a single to left.
Nick Punto’s two-run double in the fifth put the Mets in a 2-1 hole. Harvey walked A.J. Ellis and allowed a single to Juan Uribe before Punto, who homered against Carlos Torres on Monday, hit a shot to left that scored both runs.
Harvey’s first jam came in the fourth, when walked Carl Crawford leading off the inning and Mark Ellis followed with a single. But with one out, Puig hit a hard grounder to second that was converted into a double play.
Juan Lagares got the Mets a quick run by hitting an 0-1 pitch into the left field seats after Ryu had retired Eric Young Jr. to start the game. The homer was Lagares’ fourth of the season and came a night after he was called out by Chad Fairchild on a controversial strike three — the pitch by some estimates was a foot outside — to help stifle a seventh-inning rally.
Puig was awarded a single on a play in which Justin Turner’s throw was wide of first base in the second, but Harvey got the next batter, Skip Schumaker, to hit into a double play.
Uribe singled leading off the third, but was erased when Punto hit a shot that Daniel Murphy snared, leaping, and turned into a double play.
mpuma@nypost.com