NEW YORK _ There are hard losses _ brutal one-run games, bad injuries or the dreaded extra-inning walk-off.
And then there was Saturday at Citi Field, which somehow seemed just as bad as all of those combined.
It's not just that the Mets are in do-or-die territory (they've been there for a while), and it wasn't necessarily that they wasted a gritty performance by Jacob deGrom (that happens fairly regularly). It was all the opportunities they squandered against the Dodgers, including prime ones in the sixth and seventh. It was the fact that Chase Utley _ the player Mets fans dislike probably more than anyone _ had a single in a back-breaking eighth. It was Matt Kemp's spirit-crushing grand slam, and the defensive miscue that helped set it up. It was the fact that this 8-3 loss put them a season-low 12 games under .500, and seemed to proclaim this season all but over.
The Dodgers scored five runs against Robert Gsellman in the fifth _ aided by Michael Conforto's second misplay in center field _ and the offense did little against a Dodgers bullpen that tossed six strong innings in light of Clayton Kershaw's scheduled shortened start.
The Dodgers led 3-2 before that eighth inning, which started with a single by Cody Bellinger. Yasiel Puig followed up with a liner to center, which appeared catchable but was misjudged by Conforto (Puig was called out at second base trying to stretch it into a double). An intentional walk put runners on the corners, and Enrique Hernandez's suicide squeeze just barely scored Bellinger. Utley singled and Kemp, pinch hitting, hit his 13th home run of the season to left, on a two-seam fastball, making it 8-2.
That inning capped an evening of frustration and futility.
DeGrom, who went into Saturday having given up one earned run or fewer in 10 of his last 11 starts, matched that quota two batters in. After getting drilled by Joc Pederson's comebacker and getting the out at first, deGrom served up a home run on the very next pitch, a 97-mph fastball to Max Muncy, which he drilled to the upper deck in right. The next batter, Justin Turner, got on base on Todd Frazier's fielding error, but deGrom clamped down after that, with a strikeout and a fielder's choice.
Too often, though, even one run has been too much for the Mets to overcome when deGrom starts. That wasn't the case Saturday, when Michael Conforto drilled a double to the wall in the bottom of the second _ the first hit off Clayton Kershaw _ and Jose Bautista followed up with a run-scoring double of his own. He's now reached base safely in nine straight games, and made a nifty running catch in right field in the third, stealing a potential extra-base hit from Muncy.
Kershaw, who faced the Mets in lieu of a rehab start, wasn't quite his dominant self after a little less than a month on the disabled list. He let up a single to deGrom to lead off the third, and a one-out single to Frazier to put runners on first and second. Wilmer Flores singled on Kershaw's 88-mph fastball to plate deGrom and give the Mets the lead.
Kershaw lasted three innings and 55 pitches, in what was an expected shortened start. He gave up the two earned runs, five hits and a walk with four strikeouts, his fastball velocity hovering around 90 mph.
And almost all season, those two runs the Mets scored would have been enough for deGrom to leave with a lead, but not Saturday. DeGrom struggled in the top of the fourth, allowing back-to-back runners to reach on a single and a walk. With two outs, Kershaw was lifted for pinch hitter Chris Taylor, who doubled to right to score two and give the Dodgers a 3-2 lead. DeGrom actually appeared to have strike three on Taylor, but the ball was called low, and the double came a pitch later. It was the first time deGrom had let up that many earned runs since April 16. DeGrom eventually got out of the inning without any more damage, but not before barking at plate umpire Ed Hickox as he walked off.
The Mets seemed primed to at least tie the game in the fifth, when they led off the inning with back-to-back singles from Brandon Nimmo and Frazier to place runners at the corners, but reliever Caleb Ferguson struck out the next two, and got Conforto to ground out to first to a chorus of boos.
