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Greinke shoots for 8th victory in finale with Mets

Zack Greinke goes after his major league-high eighth win of the season Thursday when the Los Angeles Dodgers attempt to complete a three-game sweep of the New York Mets at Citi Field.

Greinke has been the best pitcher in baseball this season and put forth his finest effort of the season on Friday in Arizona, as he held the Diamondbacks off the board for eight innings to run his record to 7-1 on the year to go along with a 2.03 ERA.

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"I forget how much fun it is to catch him," said catcher A.J. Ellis. "He's so imaginative, he has so many weapons."

Greinke allowed five hits, all singles, with six strikeouts. Amazingly, he has now allowed two runs or less in 21 consecutive starts since last June, the longest streak in the Major Leagues since at least 1914.

The Dodgers are also 29-8 in his starts with them since he signed a 6-year, $159 million deal before last season.

Greinke has split two starts against the Mets, while pitching to a 3.21 ERA.

New York, meanwhile will counter with lefty Jon Niese, who is 2-3 with a 2.54 ERA. Niese had delivered 11 consecutive outings of three runs or fewer before surrendering five (3 earned) in a loss to Washington on Friday.

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"I felt pretty good today," said Niese. "A lot of things just didn't go my way."

Niese has faced the Dodgers four times and is 1-0 with a 4.09 ERA against them.

On Wednesday, Hyun-Jin Ryu struck out nine in his return from the disabled list and three of Los Angeles' five hits left the ballpark as the Dodgers took their second straight from the Mets, 4-3.

Ryu (4-2), who missed more than three weeks with inflammation in his left shoulder, continued his road dominance this season, going six innings and allowing two runs on nine hits.

"(Ryu) was sharp. He was throwing it exactly where he wanted to throw it," Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said.

The lefty kept the Mets scoreless through his first five innings and extended his road scoreless streak to start the season to 31 innings, the second best mark to begin a campaign in the last 50 years. Only Roger Clemens (35 innings) in 2005 went longer.

Yasiel Puig, Hanley Ramirez and Adrian Gonzalez -- LA's 2, 3 and 4 hitters -- all belted solo home runs to help the Dodgers improve to 16-9 away from home this season.

Eric Campbell's first career home run produced a pair of New York runs behind Justin deGrom (0-2), who served up all three LA long balls and went six innings in his second career start.

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"Outside of the home-run balls ... I thought he pitched very, very well," Mets manager Terry Collins said of his young starter.

Los Angeles and New York are meeting for the first time since the Dodgers won five of six matchups a season ago.

[SportsNetwork.com]

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