Before Wednesday’s game the Dodgers sent rookie pitcher Clayton Kershaw to Triple-A Las Vegas to make room for Hiroki Kuroda, who was coming off the disabled list. While Kershaw has been inconsistent throughout his first major-league stint, Kuroda has been even more so in his first season in the America. Kuroda has had brilliant games, such as his start in May against the Astros, and some horrific outings, such as his last start before the injury, when he gave up six runs in less than three innings in San Diego.
Manager Joe Torre hoped Kuroda could be at least decent, and could get through a few innings to cover for the bullpen tired by the previous game’s 11-inning win. However, with Kuroda there’s been good and bad, and rarely anything in between. On Wednesday, Good Kuroda showed up.
Kuroda threw seven shutout innings to earn the win in the Dodgers’ 4-1 victory over Houston. He allowed a single walk and surrendered five hits, including two to a David Newhan and none to Lance Berkman. He ran into trouble in only one inning, the fifth, but bailed himself out by picking off a key runner from second. Cory Wade pitched the last two innings, surrendering a towering solo shot by Carlos Lee but nothing else.
On the offensive end, the Dodgers got just enough timely hitting to cover for a few hitters who couldn’t get anything done. Russell Martin, who had an excellent game two days ago, and James Loney combined to go 0-for-6. The Dodger bench also came up short once more, with Jason Repko failing to produce and still hitting .000 and Mark Sweeney failing to raise his average once again (it’s because he didn’t make an appearance, but still).
Fortunately, other guys were there to pick up the slack. Five of the Dodgers’ eight hits went for extra bases, including hit a pair of Jeff Kent RBI doubles and a triple by Matt Kemp. Andre Ethier finished a triple shy of the cycle, recording his eighth homer. Luis Maza also executed a perfect suicide squeeze in the fourth inning to bring home Blake DeWitt, picking up the first RBI for a Dodger shortstop since… June 5.
With the win, the Dodgers closed to within 1½ of the Diamondbacks, who lost a back-and-forth game to the Brewers in Arizona. More importantly, the Dodgers are only a game back in the loss column. And with Chad Billingsley going tomorrow in the finale, the Dodgers could pull even closer…
Keywords: Andre Ethier, Arizona Diamondbacks, Blake DeWitt, Carlos Lee, Chad Billingsley, Clayton Kershaw, Cory Wade, Hiroki Kuroda, Houston Astros, James Loney, Jason Repko, Jeff Kent, Joe Torre, Lance Berkman, Los Angeles Dodgers, Luis Maza, Mark Sweeney, Matt Kemp, Milwaukee Brewers, Russell Martin
