Mets feast on Dodgers pitching in 8-0 victory to take series

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Steven Matz scattered two hits over six scoreless innings, Wilmer Flores went 4 for 5, and the New York Mets beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 8-0 Sunday to take two out of three from the NL West leaders.

Matz (2-0) struck out eight and walked two in strongly following up a victory in his major league debut a week ago against Cincinnati. The left-hander had a run-scoring groundout in a three-run fourth that made it 4-0, giving him five RBIs in two games.

Mike Bolsinger (4-3) gave up four runs and nine hits in five innings, having made it past five innings just once in his last four starts. The right-hander struck out four and walked two.

New York had 15 hits against the Dodgers' struggling pitching.

Flores set a career-high four hits while driving in three runs and finished the three-game series 10 for 12. His single to Kike Hernandez in the fourth resulted in the Dodgers shortstop rolling over on his head with his legs splayed in the air in a fruitless attempt to field the ball.

Juan Lagares had a two-run triple and Ruben Tejada added an RBI single off reliever Juan Nicasio in the seventh when the Mets led 7-0. Yasiel Puig lost Lagares' hit in the sun and then overran it, stretching himself to the limit as the ball landed behind him in right field.

Michael Cuddyer was hitless in five at-bats in his return to the Mets' starting lineup after being out four games because of a knee injury, although he came off the bench in the last two.

The Dodgers mustered just three hits. After A.J. Ellis' leadoff single in the fifth, they had just two runners reach base the rest of the game.

Puig went 0 for 4 with two strikeouts and rookie Joc Pederson was hitless in three at-bats with a strikeout.

TRAINER'S ROOM

Dodgers: 1B Adrian Gonzalez left after three innings with a bruised right hand. ... RHP Carlos Frias went on the 15-day DL retroactive to Wednesday with lower back tightness, a problem he had in his previous two starts, going only five innings in both. An MRI showed no structural damage in his back.

UP NEXT

Mets: LHP Jonathon Niese (3-8, 3.90 ERA) starts in the series opener at San Francisco. He hasn't earned a win in a career-high nine straight outings and has lost a career-high-tying six consecutive decisions.

Dodgers: They have not announced a starter to replace Frias in the opener of a four-game series against Philadelphia.

(© 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed)