LOS ANGELES — Michael Conforto was hitless in his past 15 at-bats when he walked to the batter’s box in Thursday’s eighth inning with the score tied and the Los Angeles Dodgers looking to split a four-game series against the New York Mets. His batting average, two months into a one-year, $17 million contract, was down to .162. The home crowd was beginning to boo whenever he made outs.

Then, Conforto got the hit he had been clamoring for — a two-out, line-drive single that gave the short-handed Dodgers a 6-5, come-from-behind victory.

It was Conforto’s first hit with runners in scoring position since March 31.

“It’s been a grind up to this point,” Conforto said. “All I want to do is go up there and help us win, and in a lot of those situations, I’ve come up short. To come through today was everything.”

Landon Knack, forced into the rotation with Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow and Roki Sasaki all nursing shoulder injuries, put the Dodgers in a 3-0 hole through the first three innings, during which he served up home runs to Starling Marte, Brandon Nimmo and a red-hot Pete Alonso.

But the Dodgers came back against Reed Garrett in the bottom of the eighth. Mookie Betts drew a leadoff walk and scored on Will Smith‘s double down the left-field line. Two batters later, the Mets committed another critical blunder — two nights after Nimmo got spun around on Freddie Freeman‘s walk-off double and two innings after Marte got thrown out by Smith’s back pick at third base.

Andy Pages hit a slow roller to third with the contact play on. Smith darted toward home, came to an abrupt stop, assuming he’d get caught in a rundown, then slid in with the tying run after Brett Baty‘s throw bounced just far enough beyond Mets catcher Francisco Alvarez. Three batters later, after the Mets intentionally walked Freeman, Conforto produced a 110.8 mph line drive into the left-center-field gap, igniting a Dodger Stadium crowd that had grown exasperated by his slow start.

“Hopefully, we can say this is a turning point for him,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.

Conforto, who entered Thursday just 2-for-35 with runners in scoring position, hopes so, too.

“Those are the types of at-bats to get you going,” said Conforto, who compiled 17.9 FanGraphs wins above replacement and made an All-Star team while with the Mets from 2015 to 2021. “To get that monkey off your back with runners in scoring position, to come through in a big spot for the team — that’s a big moment for me. I want to do a lot more than that.”

The Dodgers and Mets faced each other seven times over 13 days, after meeting in last year’s National League Championship Series. The Mets claimed four victories, but the teams were separated by just seven runs. All but one of the games were decided by three runs or fewer. Three, including two this week, went into extra innings.

The Dodgers (38-25) have 15 pitchers on the injured list, including three frontline starters and five high-leverage relievers. But the Mets (39-24) aren’t whole, either. Two of their most important starters, Frankie Montas and Sean Manaea, are on the injured list. And Juan Soto is only starting to get going.

“They’re arguably a much better team, and they still got guys out, so they might be better than that,” Betts said. “I’m sure we’re going to see them down the road.”