Juan Uribe powers Dodgers to 8-5 win over New York Mets

Struggling Juan Uribe homered, doubled and drove in four runs to lead the Dodgers past the New York Mets, 8-5, on Saturday at Citi Field.

Uribe, hitting under .200, capped his day with a two-run home run in the ninth inning off knuckleballer R.A. Dickey, the Mets starter who leads the National League with 13 wins but was called on in relief.

For the second consecutive game the Dodgers chased the Mets’ starting pitcher after only three innings, in this case veteran Miguel Batista. The Dodgers are now 2-0 on their 10-game trip.

Several Dodgers drove in runs besides Uribe, including Adam Kennedy, James Loney, Luis Cruz and Matt Treanor.

Dodgers starter and ex-Met Chris Capuano was solid if not stellar in earning his 10th win by holding his old teammates to three runs in seven innings, including a solo home run by Ronny Cedeno.

The Mets turned to the 41-year-old Batista due to injuries on their pitching staff. He hadn’t started since May 19, and the Dodgers exploited the right-hander’s first-inning wildness.

After Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier drew walks, Loney singled home Kemp for the Dodgers’ first run.

In the third inning, Kennedy and Ethier singled and Uribe drove in both with a double into the right-field corner. Uribe then scored on Cruz’s single.

With a 4-2 lead in the fourth inning, the Dodgers added a run when New York reliever Jeremy Hefner walked Kennedy and Kemp hit a fly ball that glanced off the glove of right-fielder Scott Hairston for a triple to score Kennedy.

The Dodgers scored again in the fifth inning when Uribe walked and Treanor lined a ball that went fair and then hit the rain tarp in foul ground on the third-base line. The ball took a hop that evaded the Mets long enough for Uribe to score.

Dodgers reliever Ronald Belisario gave up two runs in the eighth inning, including a run-scoring triple to Daniel Murphy, and Kenley Jansen tossed a scoreless ninth.

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