Jacob deGrom’s room for error was slim, so serving up three fat ones to the Dodgers wasn’t in his best interest Wednesday night.
The Mets aren’t scoring enough to let a rookie off the hook for mistakes in the strike zone. DeGrom allowed three solo home runs and would have to suffer the consequences of a second straight loss to begin his major league career.
“My job is to go out there and give us a chance and keep us in the game and I felt like I did that tonight,” deGrom said after the Mets’ sixth loss in seven games, 4-3 to the Dodgers at Citi Field.
In his second major league start, deGrom (0-2) allowed three runs, four hits, three walks and struck out four over six innings. But the Mets (20-25) couldn’t deliver when it counted, despite outhitting the Dodgers 13-5.
Maybe the maddening moment of the night for the Mets came in the eighth, when Hanley Ramirez hit a comebacker to Jeurys Familia that could have been an inning-ending double play. But with Wilmer Flores and Daniel Murphy converging at second base, Familia hesitated on the throw, and the Mets got just one out. Chone Figgins scored on the play.
Murphy said the shortstop normally receives the throw on such a play, but because Flores had shifted to play Ramirez in the hole, it was the second baseman’s ball — but Familia froze.
“I got the ground ball and it’s part of the game — I made a mistake and tomorrow is a new day,” Familia said.
That run became bigger in the ninth when Juan Lagares’ triple led to the Mets pulling within 4-3.
David Wright’s third hit of the game, a two-out double in the seventh, brought Chris Young to the plate with the tying run at third base. But Young was retired by reliever Brandon League, keeping the Dodgers’ lead at 3-2.
Eric Campbell gave the Mets life in the sixth with his first major league home run, a two-run blast that trimmed the Dodgers’ lead to 3-2. The homer snapped a road scoreless streak by lefty Hyun-Jin Ryu that had reached 33 innings.
“I swung through a changeup early and figured it was going to come back again,” said Campbell, who is 7-for-16 (.438) to begin his major league career. “It’s been two weeks I’ll remember forever, for sure.”
Manager Terry Collins said he wants to keep Campbell’s hot bat in the lineup and may start him at first base in Thursday’s series finale.
“We’ve got to think about getting him in there someplace, somehow,” Collins said. “The way he’s swinging we’ve got to figure out someplace to put him.”
Ryu lasted six innings in which he allowed two earned runs on nine hits with nine strikeouts and one walk.
DeGrom cruised into the sixth before Yasiel Puig and Ramirez hit consecutive homers to put the Mets in a 3-0 hole. But deGrom rebounded to get the final two outs in the inning.
“He’s going to be real good,” Collins said. “He’s got a great demeanor on the mound — an impressive kid.”
Adrian Gonzalez’s homer leading off the second got the Dodgers their first run. It was the second straight game with a homer for Gonzalez, who hit a two-run blast against Rafael Montero on Tuesday.
The Mets loaded the bases with two outs in the third against Ryu, but Granderson struck out to end the threat.
That whiff made the Mets an almost unfathomable 6-for-41 (.146) with the bases loaded this season.
On Tuesday, the Mets loaded the bases in the fifth and seventh innings, both times with one out, and failed to score.