LOS ANGELES -- Ranked by Defensive Runs Saved, one of baseball’s more popular catch-all defensive statistics, the Dodgers entered Monday’s play tops in the National League by a wide margin. The Mets? Dead last.

That fact was on full display at Dodger Stadium, where Los Angeles put on a defensive clinic to beat the Mets, 9-5. Cutting down two men at home plate and one at third base, the Dodgers used their arms to thwart New York’s comeback attempt in a game the Mets forced closer Kenley Jansen to enter with just one out in the eighth.

• Box score

By that point, the Mets were trailing by three, having allowed six runs in a nightmarish sixth. Two singles and an error loaded the bases with one out, bringing J.D. Davis -- who had already delivered a two-run homer off Clayton Kershaw -- to the plate.

What happened next seemed formulaic: Davis launched a routine fly ball to right, deep enough to score a run. But as the ball settled into Cody Bellinger’s glove, Carlos Gomez bolted from second to third. Bellinger uncorked a throw in that direction, reaching Justin Turner on the fly to beat Gomez to the bag by a split-second. Although the Mets challenged the resulting double play, replay revealed that Turner tagged out Gomez long before Tomas Nido crossed home plate. Bellinger, in effect, had taken an eraser to both the run and the rally.

Still, the Mets defended Gomez’s aggressive baserunning.

“We don’t have any problem with him going there,” manager Mickey Callaway said. “It was just an unbelievable throw. You're going to see that on highlights for the next 30 years. They're going to be playing that over and over."

“You take your chances as an aggressive runner,” Gomez said. “It’s sometimes going to be good. If the throw isn't perfect and the ball hits me, the game's going to be 8-7 with a runner on second. For me, if I’m on second again, I go to third. A hundred times.”

It was not Bellinger’s only impactful play of the night. In the first inning, with two Mets on base, Todd Frazier hit a single to right. Bellinger fielded that one as well and threw a hair off-target to home plate, where Russell Martin made a sweeping tag of Michael Conforto.

“I don’t know if they give out Gold Gloves in May,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said, “but it’s hard to see it play out any other way.”

Three innings later, the Dodgers cut down Nido at home on a relay from Joc Pederson to Corey Seager to Martin.

Individually, the Mets had no trouble defending each of their baserunning decisions. Collectively, they seemed to point to a greater truth: the Dodgers’ defensive superiority. All season, the Mets have struggled defensively -- from Amed Rosario at shortstop, to Davis at third base and left field, to Wilson Ramos behind the plate, and so on and so forth. The Mets’ total of -41 Defensive Runs Saved entering Monday’s play was easily last in the NL, ahead of only the Mariners in MLB.

That, more than anything, was the difference in Monday’s game. While Mets starter Jacob deGrom labored, throwing 105 pitches in five innings, so too did Kershaw. While the Mets’ bullpen duo of Tyler Bashlor and Daniel Zamora cracked for six runs in the sixth, the Dodgers’ relief corps reopened the door in the eighth. The box score differed completely in only one area.

“They made three really good throws tonight,” Callaway said. “They played great defense. When you swing the bats like they do and they play great defense and Kershaw’s on the mound, they’re going to be tough to beat.”