Ethier’s hitting streak stopped at 30 in Dodgers’ 4-2 loss to the Mets
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Willie Davis, your legend lives on. Also, your franchise-record hitting streak.
Andre Ethier was left one game shy of matching Davis’ 31-game hitting streak Saturday, when he failed to get a hit in five trips to the plate.
Then with the bullpen faltering again, the Dodgers completed a disappointing night, falling 4-2 when the Mets broke open a tie game with a pair of runs in the eighth inning.
There is something about hitting streaks reaching 30. Of the 53 hitters in baseball history to put together a 30-game hitting streak, 21 of them never made it to 31.
Chris Young was scheduled to start for the Mets, but was a last-minute scratch when he couldn’t get loose, which must have broken Ethier’s heart. Ethier was hitting .414 (12 for 29) lifetime against Young, and half his hits were home runs.
Dillon Gee, who had started a pair of games last month, was rushed to the mound. Ethier had never seen Gee, and the right fielder hit like it. Maybe he was just letdown. In his three plate appearances against Gee, he walked and flied out twice.
He failed to get a hit against a pair of Mets left-handed relievers in his next two at-bats. He bounced out in the sixth against Mike O’Conner and struck out swinging against Tim Byrdak in the eighth.
Jon Garland started for the Dodgers and put together his third consecutive strong outing. After a rough opening game following a trip to the disabled list with an oblique injury, he has a 2.04 earned-run average in his last three starts.
Garland fave up two runs Saturday on seven hits in his six innings.
The Dodgers’ offense, however, continued to struggle. They left the bases loaded without scoring in the first, second and seventh innings. They left 14 men on base on the night and were one for 13 with men in scoring position.
A Dioner Navarro solo home run and an Aaron Miles single gave the Dodgers their only runs.
It was a 2-2 game in the eighth when the bullpen broke down, again. Mike MacDougal walked Jason Bay, Hong-Chih Kuo threw a sacrifice bunt halfway to the Atlantic for an error, Matt Guerrier walked the bases loaded and then gave up the game-winning hit when pinch-hitter’s Justin Turners’ drive went off the glove of Matt Kemp for two-run single.
The Dodgers have now lost six of their last seven games and four consecutive series.
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