Teoscar Hernandez led off the 13th inning with an RBI double for the visiting Los Angeles Dodgers, who outlasted the New York Mets 7-5 in the opener of a three-game series.
The Dodgers, who relinquished a three-run lead in the ninth inning of the rematch of last year’s National League Championship Series, have won three straight. The Mets have lost six of eight.
The teams squandered numerous chances in extras before Hernandez greeted Huascar Brazoban (3-1) – the Mets’ ninth pitcher – by doubling down the third base line to score automatic runner Will Smith. Hernandez went to third on a single by Hyeseong Kim and scored on a sacrifice fly by Andy Pages.
Luis Garcia (2-0), the Dodgers’ eighth pitcher, tossed 2 1/3 hitless innings. He wriggled out of a bases-loaded jam in the 12th.
The game ended at 12:56 a.m. local time and lasted four hours and eight minutes – not counting a 98-minute rain delay in the third. The teams combined to use 40 players and stranded 24 runners, 12 apiece.
It was the longest game for the Mets since the automatic runner rule was instituted in 2020 and the longest for the Dodgers since Aug. 25, 2021, when they beat the San Diego Padres 5-3 in 16 innings.
Smith and Hernandez had consecutive RBI singles during the rain-delayed third, with Hernandez’s hit driving in a pair. Muncy and Pages had back-to-back run-scoring singles in the fifth.
Brett Baty hit a solo shot in the third for the Mets and Pete Alonso lofted a sacrifice fly in the fourth before New York rallied against Tanner Scott in the ninth, when Jeff McNeil laced a two-run triple and scored on Tyrone Taylor’s single.
Dodgers starter Clayton Kershaw walked one and struck out one in two hitless innings in his second start of the season following offseason surgeries on his left toe and left foot.
Mets starter Griffin Canning, who exited with a 3-1 count on Freddie Freeman when the rain delay began, allowed three runs on one hit and four walks while striking out one in 2 2/3 innings.
