LOS ANGELES — Mets shortstop Ruben Tejada broke his right leg when a takeout slide by Chase Utley flipped the shortstop during a four-run rally in the seventh inning, and the Los Angeles Dodgers went on to beat New York 5-2 Saturday night to tie their NL Division Series at one game apiece.
The Mets were leading 2-1 when the Dodgers put runners at the corners with one out against Noah Syndergaard. Bartolo Colon relieved, and Howie Kendrick hit a grounder up the middle.
Second baseman Daniel Murphy flipped to Tejada, who took the throw awkwardly for an apparent force as Utley slid past the bag and slammed into him with Tejada’s back turned to the play, causing him to flip over as the tying run scored from third.
Tejada was put on a flatbed vehicle after an air cast was placed on his leg. The Mets said Tejada sustained a fractured right fibula. Utley was ruled safe on a video review, which determined Tejada’s foot missed the bag. Utley also appeared not to touch the base.
Mets manager Terry Collins wouldn’t say whether he saw the slide was clean or not. He said the umpires were “great’” in how they handled the review.
“They thought that it’s pretty hard to rule that he didn’t touch the bag when he hit the shortstop and nobody was tagged, so they have no other call,” he said, “so they handled it right.”
Adrian Gonzalez followed with a two-run double off Addison Reed and scored on Justin Turner’s double.
There was some history between Utley and Tejada. The Mets were angered during a takeout slide by Utley during a game against Philadelphia in September 2010.
“Yeah, they’re angry,” Collins said of his players. “You lose in a playoff series to that serious of an injury, yeah, they’re not very happy about it.”
Dodgers manager Don Mattingly defended Utley.
“I know Chase is not trying to hurt anybody,” he said. “He’s just playing the game the way he plays it. He plays it hard, he’s aggressive.”
Collins said Wilmer Flores will replace Tejada at shortstop for the rest of the series.
The Dodgers’ Zack Greinke (1-0) allowed two runs and five hits in seven innings. He struck out eight and walked none a night after teammate Clayton Kershaw fanned 11 while losing his fifth straight postseason game.
Kenley Jansen pitched the ninth for the save, completing a five-hitter.
Syndergaard (0-1) gave up three runs and five hits in 6 1/3 innings. He struck out nine and walked four in following up Jacob deGrom’s 13-strikeout performance in winning Game 1. Eight of Syndergaard’s first 36 pitches reached 100 mph or more over the first two innings on an unseasonable 90-degree evening.
The action shifts to Citi Field in New York for Game 3 Monday, when Brett Anderson starts for the Dodgers against the Mets’ Matt Harvey in the best-of-five series.
Yoenis Cespedes and Michael Conforto hit solo homers in the second, the latter off the right-field pole. Andre Ethier had an RBI double in the fourth.
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