The Dodgers were tagged for just their third loss in this month, with a wild 8-15 loss to the Pirates after they had the game tied at 7 in the stretch.
The Pirates scored two early, but the Dodgers took the lead with four runs in the third. They put up three more and had a tie in the seventh before the Pirates exploded for their eight runs. Kemp had a 4 for 5 night, Martin had 3 hits and 3 RBI, and Nomar, Ozuna, and Berroa each chipped in with two hits. Nomar was lifted in the fifth after singling when he slammed into third and appeared to have sprained his left knee, no word on if or how many days he’ll be out.
After 12 straight quality starts, I guess Chad Billingsley was about due for a rough outing, though he is still winless in his last four. He gave up a run in the first and third innings but the Dodgers gave him the lead back in the fourth. He then gave up a solo homerun in the bottom half by Adam LaRoche followed by another homerun to LaRoche in the fifth, a granny that ended his night. He gave up seven runs, six earned, on eight hits with 5 K’s, but wasn’t tagged for the loss. Beimel finished the fifth and Proctor tossed the sixth and two outs in the eighth before Elbert came on. He inherited no runners with two outs, but ended up giving up four runs, a two-run homerun and a two-run single, to end his night without recording an out. Jason Johnson didn’t fare any better, giving the Pirates three more runs in the eighth. Troncoso allowed another run before finally escaping the inning, with the Pirates touching home EIGHT TIMES with TWO OUTS. James McDonald was probably the only Dodger pitching highlight of the night, going 1-2-3 with two strikeouts in his big league debut.
The Dodgers don’t have much time to recover from this one, with Thursday’s game being a 12:30pm start. Clayton Kershaw will get the nod and can give the Dodgers a series win. He’ll face lefty Paul Maholm, who is 9-8 with a 3.68 ERA, with one of the losses coming back in April against the Dodgers.
