LOS ANGELES — Burn, baby, burn.
The house money the Mets received by winning the first two games of this series against the Dodgers promptly got thrown into a fire pit Sunday afternoon, and Adrian Houser lit most of the matches.
With Houser extremely hittable his third time through the batting order, the Mets got stomped 10-0 at Dodger Stadium to snap their six-game winning streak.
The Mets certainly would have signed up for two victories in three games against everybody’s World Series favorite, but a second straight sweep would have been sweeter.
Instead the Mets will open a new series on Monday in San Francisco trying to avoid losing consecutive games for the first time since their 0-5 start.
Houser, in his worst start since arriving to the Mets, lasted four-plus innings and allowed eight runs on seven hits with four walks and three strikeouts.
The right-hander kept the Mets competitive into the fifth, but in that frame the Dodgers had six straight batters reach base against Houser, who exited without recording an out.
“These guys have been playing great and I’m letting them down right now,” Houser said. “I can’t be doing that, so I have got to clean some things up and get them back home.”
The Mets looked comfortable at the plate in scoring 15 runs to win the previous two games, but Tyler Glasnow changed the conversation on this day by pitching eight shutout innings in which he allowed seven hits and struck out 10 without walking a batter.
Glasnow, allowed to remain in the game with two outs in the eighth after surrendering consecutive singles to Tomas Nido and Brandon Nimmo, pumped his fist in celebration upon striking out Tyrone Taylor on pitch No. 101.
“We’re playing good baseball,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “Today what happened, but overall a good series and move on to the next one.”
Shohei Ohtani launched a two-run homer in the third that placed the Mets in a 2-0 hole.
The blast was Ohtani’s fifth of the season and 176th in his MLB career — moving him ahead of Hideki Matsui as the all-time home run leader among Japanese-born players.
Will Smith drew a two-out walk in the inning, but was thrown out attempting to steal second base by Nido. It snapped a string of 26 consecutive steals to begin the season by opposing teams, all against Francisco Alvarez and Omar Narvaez.
The Mets received a two-out single from Francisco Lindor in the fourth, but he was thrown out attempting to steal second by Smith. It was the second caught stealing in as many innings for Smith — he threw out Harrison Bader attempting to steal second in the third.
Houser’s nightmarish fifth started with Andy Pages’ leadoff double and a walk to Gavin Lux. Mookie Betts delivered an RBI single to give the Dodgers a 3-0 lead and Ohtani’s ensuing single loaded the bases.
Freddie Freeman followed with a double past a diving Starling Marte in right field for two runs and Smith doubled in another two. Pages placed the punctuation on the inning with a homer (the first of his career) against Grant Hartwig that buried the Mets in a 10-0 hole.
“I was just making too many mistakes,” Houser said. “I think the walks early in the game just kind of affected that and got me there. I just wasn’t able to get in sync in the fifth inning. I need to be able to get some quick outs there and keep the team in the ballgame.”
For Houser it was his second start in four with the Mets in which he allowed at least five earned runs. The other occurred on April 9 in Atlanta, where he surrendered five earned runs over five innings.
In his start that followed, last Monday against the Pirates, he minimized the damage, allowing only two earned runs despite walking five batters over 5 ¹/₃ innings.
“That last inning, he ran out of gas, too many pitches over the heart of the plate,” Mendoza said, referring to Sunday’s outing. “The top three [in the lineup], a lot of pitches over the plate and they didn’t miss it.”
