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 as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat New York 5-2 on Saturday (Sunday AEDT) to even their Major League Baseball National League Division Series at one game apiece.
In the other NL series, the Chicago Cubs held off the St. Louis Cardinals 6-3 to even their series at a game apiece.
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.
The play that resulted in Tejada's broken leg occurred when the Mets were leading 2-1 in the seventh inning.
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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, causing Tejada to flip over as the tying run scored from third.
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.
Adrian Gonzalez followed with a two-run double off Addison Reed and scored on Justin Turner's double.
Syndergaard (0-1) gave up three runs and five hits in 6 1/3 innings for the Mets. He struck out nine and walked four in following up Jacob deGrom's 13-strikeout performance in winning Game 1.
Game 3 is in New York on Monday, when Brett Anderson tries to pitch the Dodgers back into the best-of-five series against the Mets' Matt Harvey.
In St. Louis, Kyle Hendricks and Addison Russell had successful squeeze bunts and Jorge Soler capped a five-run second with a two-run homer to lead the Cubs.
The usually steady NL Central champion Cardinals made two errors as the Cubs didn't hit the ball out of the infield in scoring their first three runs in the second.
Playing in his first postseason game, Soler connected off Jaime Garcia (0-1), who was lifted because of a stomach ailment after the second inning. Besides the two-run homer, Soler doubled and walked twice in the Cubs' first postseason victory since 2003. Chicago had lost seven straight Division Series games.
Game 3 is in Chicago on Monday, where the Cubs' 22-game winner Jake Arrieta faces St. Louis' Michael Wacha.
