Mets" Niese Injured in Loss to Dodgers Adam Hunger/Reuters Mets starter Jon Niese after he was hit in the right leg by a hard grounder in the third inning against the Dodgers on Tuesday at Citi Field. He came out for a reliever, and X-rays were negative. Right after his 54th pitch on Tuesday night, Jon Niese stumbled off the mound and performed an awkward 720-degree spin. He could not get out of the way of a comebacker, and as the game whirred on around him, he limped toward home plate, took a few wobbly steps up the first-base line and then bent over, hands on his knees. When Niese settled onto the grass, his fingers wrapped around his right ankle, the Mets and their fans must have held their breath. Given how thin the team's pitching staff has looked, and given how much expectation has been placed on Niese, a 26-year-old left-hander, it must have been a disconcerting sight. Ultimately, the Mets" worst fears were not realized. They lost, 7-2, to the Los Angeles Dodgers at Citi Field, but a negative X-ray suggested that the Mets would not lose one of their most important players for any significant time. It was something for which they could be thankful, even on a night when their record fell to 9-9. "Everything kind of locked up down there," Niese said. I couldn't move my toes. It was kind of scary. Niese and his coaches expect him to make his next start. But they appeared to have every reason to be scared at first. During the third inning, second baseman Mark Ellis whacked a cutter toward the mound. Niese said his instinct forced him to leave his foot there to knock the ball down. Ideally, he would have blocked the ball with his shoe. But it caught him instead between his ankle and Achilles" tendon, and Dan Warthen, the Mets" pitching coach, was on the bullpen phone before Niese was on his feet. "He said he didn't have any feeling in his foot, which was a bad sign for us," said Manager Terry Collins, who ran out to check on Niese. Collins said his immediate fear was that it was a serious injury that would force him to search for a long-term replacement. Niese and Matt Harvey, the team's two best pitchers this season, had a combined 2.22 earned run average entering the game. The other players who have started games for the Mets this season - Dillon Gee, Jeremy Hefner, and Aaron Laffey - have a combined 6.60 E.R.A. "Hopefully, he'll be all right and be able to make his next start," Ellis said. That was not Ellis's only destructive swing. After knocking Niese from the game, he crushed two home runs to left field, which yielded four runs. He finished the night 4 for 5. Niese was not all that sharp before he was injured. During the second inning, he walked the bases loaded and gave up a run-scoring single to shortstop Justin Sellers, the No. 8 batter, before an inning-ending double play rescued the Mets from further trouble. Clayton Kershaw, the Dodgers" starter, was not particularly sharp, either. He gave up two runs, three hits and four walks while striking out five - not a terrible final line - but his inefficiency cut his start to just five innings. Kershaw began well enough, getting the first eight Mets he faced, his trademark spasmodic delivery belying the signature crispness of his stuff. But in the third, Robert Carson, the pitcher who replaced Niese, drew a two-out walk, and Kershaw fell apart some. After Ruben Tejada drew a second walk, Daniel Murphy rolled a single into shallow center field, tying the score. Then David Wright looped a single to roughly the same spot, putting the Mets ahead. Asked how he managed to work a walk against Kershaw to spark a rally, Carson said, "I have no idea." But the Mets could not muster any more offense, and the Dodgers, on the shoulders of Ellis, surged back. Ellis hit the first of his home runs, a bases-empty shot, off Carson in the fifth. Two innings later, he crushed a three-run homer off Brandon Lyon, unlocking a 2-2 tie. And when the Dodgers went looking for an insurance run, catcher A. J. Ellis provided a two-run double in the eighth to put the Mets away for good.