LOS ANGELES — It hasn’t been an easy journey for Francisco Alvarez.

Thought to be a cornerstone of the Mets' future, he kicked off his spring training by breaking a bone in his hand. When he returned in late April, he at times looked lost at the plate. Slowly, he ceded playing time to Luis Torrens, and going into Monday night’s tilt against the Dodgers, the player who was considered a bat-first catcher was hitting .222 with just one home run.

He couldn’t have picked a better time to remind everyone of the Francisco Alvarez of old.

After a ninth-inning Dodgers rally erased a Mets lead, Alvarez hit a long double off Tanner Scott to drive in the go-ahead run in the 10th and Francisco Lindor kicked in a needed insurance run as the Mets turned aside the Dodgers, 4-3, in Game 1 of this four-game set.

Jose Castillo kicked off the bottom of the 10th by walking Freddie Freeman; Andy Pages’ single drove in Teoscar Hernandez from second to draw the Dodgers to within 4-3. Max Muncy struck out swinging to bring up pinch hitter Will Smith with one out. Carlos Mendoza then summoned Jose Butto from the bullpen.

Butto got Smith to fly out to center, moving Freeman to third base and bringing up Tommy Edman. On his bobblehead giveaway day, Edman, named MVP in the NLCS that knocked the Mets out of the playoffs last year, hit a comebacker to end the threat.

The Mets have played the World Series champions four times in a little more than a week and won three, holding them to six runs total in the victories.

The Mets were up 2-1 heading into the ninth, before Edman hit a leadoff single off Edwin Diaz and stole second. Dalton Rushing struck out swinging, but Hyesong Kim hit an infield single to shortstop to put runners at the corners for Shohei Ohtani, who had homered two innings prior. Ohtani hit a long sacrifice fly to right to tie the game at 2. Kim stole second, but Hernandez struck out swinging to end the threat.

With the speedy Luisangel Acuna as the ghost runner in the 10th, Alvarez smacked a 1-and-1 fastball 358 feet to right to plate the go-ahead run. The next batter, Francisco Lindor, singled him in to put the Mets up 4-2.

With runners on the corners and two outs, though, Mark Vientos hit a grounder and immediately clutched his hamstring before limping off the field.

Alvarez was 2-for-4, and Lindor was 2-for-5 with a homer and two RBIs. In his first major-league game in 283 games, Paul Blackburn, returning from a litany of injuries, was brilliant: He allowed no runs, three hits and a walk with three strikeouts over five innings.

The Mets took a 2-0 lead on Lindor’s leadoff homer in the first off Dustin May, his eighth leadoff homer as a Met, and Brandon Nimmo’s RBI double in the fifth. Ohtani hit a majestic 424-foot solo homer off Max Kranick in the seventh to draw the Dodgers to within 2-1.

This is the 27th straight time the Mets have won when Lindor has gone yard, two short of Carl Furillo’s major-league record, set between 1951-53.

“It was kind of a sour taste,” Mendoza said before the game about walking into the haunted mansion that witnessed their Game 6 ouster last year. “But also, understanding after everything we went through as a team and we get to the NLCS when nobody thought anything about this team, and we ended up facing the team that ended up winning the World Series. There’s a different feeling this year, understanding that they’re a really good team, [but] we’re also really good.”

Prior to the ninth, the Dodgers mounted significant threats in the fifth and sixth.

With the Mets nursing a 2-0 lead, Edman reached on an error by Pete Alonso with one out in the fifth. One out later, Kim singled to bring up Ohtani, who had already struck out twice. But after falling behind 3-and-1, Blackburn threw a changeup just outside of the strike zone that Ohtani poked harmlessly to second for an inning-ending groundout.

Blackburn was done after that; he didn’t throw a single four-seam fastball, his second-most used pitch last year, relying, as usual, on his cutter, but turning to his changeup as his main secondary pitch.

The Dodgers offense, which came into the day leading baseball in batting average and home runs, didn’t make things easy on Huascar Brazoban in the sixth.

Freeman’s single and walks to Muncy and Michael Conforto loaded the bases with two outs. That brought up Edman on what was, essentially, Tommy Edman Appreciation Day: The giveaway was his bobblehead, his toddler son threw the first pitch, and three other family members were honored through the course of the game.

There would be no cinematic climax for Edman, though, as Brazoban bared down and struck him out swinging on (what else?) a changeup outside of the strike zone.

As he’s done five other times this season, Lindor got it kicked off the game with a bang, teeing off on May’s hanging sinker and driving it 417 feet to right for a leadoff home run. His eight career leadoff homers as a Met are tied for fourth in franchise history. It was also his 14th homer of the year, tops among shortstops.

The Dodgers nearly got that one back and more in the fourth after Hernandez led off with a single. Alonso’s diving snag of Freeman’s shot down the line prevented an extra-base hit, and then with two outs, Muncy blasted Blackburn’s 88.3-mph cutter 378 feet to the deepest part of Dodger Stadium, a long flyout to center.

The Mets padded their lead in the fifth, when Jeff McNeil and Alvarez cobbled together back-to-back, one-out singles. One batter later, Nimmo, who came into the game 8-for-20 in his previous six games, rocketed a ground-rule double to right to give the Mets a 2-0 advantage.

Ohtani eviscerated Kranick’s first-pitch hanging curveball for his 23rd home run of the year, a solo shot, with two outs in the seventh.

Jose Siri (broken tibia) traveled with the team and will continue to ramp up baseball activities but isn’t close to a return … Sean Manaea (oblique) threw 29 pitches in his last live batting practice; he’ll either have one more live BP or commence a rehab assignment, Mendoza said … Brooks Raley (Tommy John) has thrown three live BPs and is nearing a rehab assignment.