NEW YORK – The kind of grit the Los Angeles Dodgers have sought for nearly two full months showed up on multiple fronts Saturday.

Plodding along with basically a break-even team, the Dodgers had the kind of determination against the New York Mets that generally shows up only on nights when Clayton Kershaw pitches. Kenta Maeda had it. The bullpen showed it with a group effort. And Chase Utley definitely had it.

Utley was the poster child for it, actually. Seven months after his hard slide in the National League Division Series fractured the leg of Ruben Tejada, the Mets’ Noah Syndergaard threw a pitch behind Utley’s back.

Syndergaard was immediately ejected by home-plate umpire Adam Hamari. Utley eventually struck out against Mets reliever Logan Verrett, but he rebounded to hit a solo home run in the sixth inning and a grand slam in the seventh. There are epic responses, and then there is the next level, which Utley showed Saturday.

“Chase has been tremendous, not only what he does in the clubhouse, but obviously, under these circumstances, for him to respond and put us on his shoulders not only speaks to him as a baseball player but to his character,” manager Dave Roberts said. “For me, there is no one better.”

That is high praise, but it is understandable from a manager who needed to see an elevated pulse from somebody other than his best pitcher.

Utley has admitted regret for the hard slide in October. He has said that if he could do it all over again, knowing what he knows, he wouldn’t have gone into a vulnerable Tejada so hard. It didn’t make the Mets any less angry about it, though.

Utley seems to have turned the Mets' anger into his own fury this weekend. Before his multihomer game Saturday, he hit a game-tying, three-run double in the ninth inning Friday, only to see the Mets win on a Curtis Granderson home run in the ninth.

When the anger and noise grow around him, Utley seems to lock in his focus even more.

“I think a loud, energizing environment gets the best out of you,” Utley said. “We had a lot of games with Philadelphia in the playoffs, and the crowds were into it, and it gets your adrenaline going a little bit and makes you dig down deeper.”

As old-school as he is, Utley said he understood why the Mets wanted to throw at him. He said he wasn’t surprised it happened six games into a seven-game season series, and he said he wouldn’t be surprised to see more retribution Sunday.

“You never know because baseball is a crazy game,” Utley said. “You never know what to expect. Overall, I thought we played well tonight. We came together as a group, we battled, and it was a good win.”

A group win has been something the Dodgers aren’t getting too often this season. The tone for Saturday’s group effort was set by Maeda, when he took a line drive off from Michael Conforto off the back of his pitching hand.

Maeda quickly went to one knee and was visited by Roberts and a Dodgers trainer, but he elected to remain in the game. The Mets didn't get another hit off Maeda through the completion of his five innings. Roberts held his starter to 75 pitches as a precaution.

“It’s a little swollen, but there is nothing wrong with the bone itself,” Maeda said through an interpreter after X-rays showed no broken bones. “It did hurt at the moment of impact, but I was able to pitch.”

His decision to fight through the injury was just what the Dodgers needed.

“What I didn’t want to do was to come out of the game because of a freak accident like that,” Maeda said. “I was able to grit out five innings, and I was able to contribute to a win today. I’m happy in that aspect.”

Utley was more interested in talking about Maeda’s day than his own.

“It was amazing,” Utley said. “I think we all saw his hand, and it didn’t look good. But to be able to throw five scoreless after taking a 100 mph ball off his hand was pretty impressive.”

An interesting perspective on the Dodgers’ unifying night came from the bullpen. Reliever Casey Fien joined the club from Triple-A Oklahoma City just as the game was beginning. From his perspective, the Dodgers aren’t a 26-24 team. Rather, they are a team that has the determination to do whatever it takes to win a game.

“You just see how competitive they are,” Fien said. “Maeda could have easily taken it to the house, but he’s a competitor and wanted to stay out on the field and pitch. That just shows his character and who he is. With Chase, that’s a veteran player right there. He could have easily used his mouth, but he used his bat to come back, and hitting a grand slam is pretty good.”

Fien was inspired enough to strike out the side in the ninth inning. All 12 of the pitches he threw were strikes.

The new guy didn’t want to be the weak link on a squad that played so well together.