Sweep in the city: Dodgers beat Mets four straight

On Thursday evening, in the seventh inning of a 6-3 victory over the New York Mets, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts orchestrated an elaborate ruse. He engages in feints like this often. He often refers to them as “just a little gamesmanship,” gambits to test the thinking of the opposing manager. Rarely do they work better than this.

With two outs, two runners aboard and the Dodgers leading by one run, Roberts sent Corey Seager into the on-deck circle for pitcher Pedro Baez. In the bullpen, Sergio Romo loosened up. The path appeared clear: If Enrique Hernandez reached base, Seager would replace Baez at the plate and Romo would replace Baez on the mound. When Hernandez walked, Roberts saw his bluff called. Seager and Romo sat down.

A third baseman in the minors, Baez batted for only the third time as a big leaguer. His rust did not steady the nerves of reliever Jerry Blevins. Blevins walked Baez on four pitches to force in a run. Another scored when Blevins walked Austin Barnes. The lead bloated to three runs, and the four-game unraveling of the Mets was complete, as the Dodgers won for the 13th time in 14 games.

“Just keep rolling along, riding the waves,” Barnes said.

The Dodgers (48-26) trounced an opponent in freefall. The fight was not even. This weekend offers a more robust challenge, as the Colorado Rockies visit Dodger Stadium for the first time since April. Trailing Colorado for most of the season, the Dodgers surged ahead in the National League West as Colorado dropped two of three to Arizona this week.

Thursday featured no spillover from Wednesday, when a well-struck and well-admired homer from Yasiel Puig incited the ire of the Mets. The team did not retaliate. They did not do much of anything, and the Dodgers won for the seventh game in a row.

The Dodgers pulled ahead after home runs in the third inning by Justin Turner and Hernandez. Hyun-Jin Ryu gave up two runs before exiting after five innings. Chris Hatcher coughed up the lead in the sixth. Joc Pederson came off the bench to put his team back in front an inning later with a solo homer, his team’s 15th in this series, which set a franchise record for a four-game set.

“We’re elevating, and good things are happening,” Roberts said.

The Dodgers produced 30 runs in the first three games of this series. On Thursday, they faced Steven Matz, a brittle but talented left-handed pitcher. Unlike 2016, the Dodgers are no longer helpless against left-handers. The team entered Thursday ranked 11th in the majors in on-base-plus-slugging percentage against left-handers. Most of the credit goes to improved performances from right-handed hitters like Turner, Hernandez and Barnes, plus the emergence of utility man Chris Taylor.

The Mets staked Matz a one-run lead. For the second game in a row, outfielder Curtis Granderson hit a leadoff homer. Granderson turned on a 92-mph fastball from Ryu. Like Rich Hill on Wednesday, Ryu did not cower in response.

Hernandez helped Ryu in the second. Ryu walked first baseman Lucas Duda, and shortstop Jose Reyes singled. Duda held at third base. He tried to score on a fly ball into left-center field. Playing center, Hernandez called off left fielder Franklin Gutierrez, charged the ball and one-hopped a throw to the plate. Barnes tagged Duda out to end the inning.

Matz slipped through the Dodgers lineup in the first two innings. The third was less kind to him. Matz paid for a belt-high fastball to Turner, who smashed the pitch beyond the left-field fence for his fifth home run of the season, and his fourth in 11 games since returning from the disabled list June 9.

“We’re doing it an all kinds of different ways,” Turner said. “When you’re going pretty good in all three aspects — your pitching, your hitting and playing good defense — that’s a good recipe for success.”

The Dodgers were not done. Cody Bellinger hit a ground-rule double. Up came Hernandez. Matz chose a curveball as his first pitch. The ball bent toward the far edge of the plate. Hernandez reached out and powered it over the fence in right.

Ryu handed a run back in the fourth. He fed catcher Travis d’Arnaud a changeup at the waist. D’Arnaud hit a solo homer.

Ryu would not return for the sixth. Roberts removed him after 86 pitches. He made a confounding choice for the inning, facing the heart of the Mets batting order: Hatcher. Hatcher rarely pitches in moments of elevated leverage. The lead would not survive his appearance.

Hatcher walked outfielder Jay Bruce. After a flyout by d’Arnaud, Roberts elected to let Hatcher, a right-hander, pitch to the left-handed-hitting Duda despite having left-handed reliever Grant Dayton warm in the bullpen.

“I wanted to see Hatch get through that inning,” Roberts said.

The decision backfired as Duda ripped a double into the gap in right-center field. Hernandez tried to grab the ball with his bare hand as it bounced off the wall. He bobbled it before feeding the cutoff man, Logan Forsythe. His throw pulled Barnes up the first base line. Barnes dove back toward the plate, where Bruce neglected to slide, but the ball kicked away and Bruce was safe.

The game did not stay tied for long. Pederson crushed the first pitch of the bottom of the seventh off reliever Paul Sewald. The runs would keep coming.

“We’re probably,” Hernandez said, “the hottest team in baseball right now.”

andy.mccullough@latimes.com

Twitter: @McCulloughTimes