Yasmani Grandal hits two home runs in Dodgers' latest rout of Mets

LOS ANGELES >> LOS ANGELES – Rich Hill made history Wednesday night. But he’s probably happier about making progress.

Hill gave up a home run and a double to the first two batters he faced but allowed just two more hits in five strong iings as the Dodgers beat the New York Mets, 8-2, extending their latest win streak to six games.

It is the Dodgers’ third six-game wiing streak in the past four weeks, a stretch that has seen them go 20-6 – and move a half-game into first place in the National League West with the Colorado Rockies’ loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Wednesday night.

Struggling with erratic command this season, Hill needed 98 pitches to get through his five iings and has not thrown a pitch in a sixth iing this season. According to Elias Sports, Hill is the first pitcher to start a season with nine consecutive starts of five iings or less.

After giving up a home run to Curtis Granderson on his second pitch and a double to Wilmer Flores on the next one, five iings seemed like a lofty goal for Hill, who entered the game with a 5.14 ERA and 1.57 WHIP. But he retired the next seven Mets in order, three by strikeout.

Hill ran into trouble again in the fourth iing when a leadoff walk, single and error by Chase Utley loaded the bases with no outs. The bottom of the Mets’ order beckoned, however, and Hill struck out their 7, 8 and 9 hitters to escape unharmed.

Meanwhile, the Dodgers were doing their nightly damage against the Mets’ under-maed pitching staff.

Promoted from Triple-A to make the start Wednesday, Mets right-hander Tyler Pill (Cal State Fullerton) managed to do something his two predecessors could not – he retired a batter before the Dodgers scored four runs.

In fact, he retired several of them before they scratched out a run without a hit in the third iing. Joc Pederson walked, went to third on a throwing error by third baseman T.J. Rivera and scored on a sacrifice fly by Hill. It was Hill’s first RBI in the majors since June 19, 2009 when he was with the Baltimore Orioles.

An iing later, Cody Bellinger and Logan Forsythe led off with back-to-back doubles to give the Dodgers the lead. After Yasmani Grandal flew out, the Mets intentionally walked Pederson, bringing up Yasiel Puig.

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Puig crushed a 3-and-1 sinker from Pill, sending it deep into the left field pavilion and standing at home plate to admire most of its 409-foot flight. That apparently irked Mets first baseman Wilmer Flores who said something to Puig when he eventually trotted past. Puig – awaiting the appeal of his one-game suspension for making an obscene gesture at fans after a home run in Cleveland last week – looked back over his shoulder and said something that lip-reading viewers couldn’t mistake. He had another brief exchange with Mets catcher Travis d’Arnaud at home plate.

Puig flew out uneventfully in his next at-bat and the only remaining excitement was provided by Grandal. He hit solo home runs in the sixth and eighth iings.

The Dodgers have hit 12 home runs in this series (three by Grandal) with a different player having a multi-homer game each night – Bellinger on Monday, Corey Seager on Tuesday and Grandal on Wednesday. They have outscored the Mets 30-8 in the first three games of this four-game series.

More to come on this story.