The best road team in baseball, the Los Angeles Dodgers, faced the Pittsburgh Pirates and the best home record in the National League on Tuesday night. Something had to give in the second game of the three game series and it was the Dodgers who were beaten 12-7 by the Pirates at PNC Park.
Dodgers starter Josh Beckett made his return to the starting rotation after spending some time on the DL with an injured hip. Beckett began the game retiring the side in order in the first inning, but struggled in his 3 2/3 innings pitched. The Pirates grabbed the lead in the second inning after sending two solo shots over the wall. Beckett gave up two more runs in the third and was relieved by Paul Maholm, who took the loss to fall to 1-5 this season. Maholm and Jamey Wright each surrendered two hits that led to two runs and gave the Pirates a commanding 8-4 lead. Four runs were tacked to Chris Perez in his short appearance, and Brandon League closed out the game.
The offense was playing catch up all night long, tying the game a couple different times. The Dodgers tacked on two in the third, with the first run coming from an Adrian Gonzalez sacrifice fly that drove in Beckett. Beckett led off the inning reaching on a throwing error, and moved to second with a Dee Gordon sacrifice bunt and to third on a bad throw. Justin Turner walked before the Gonzalez sac fly. Matt Kemp singled to move Turner to second, who then scored on a bloop single from Andre Ethier. AJ Ellis singled to drive in two and tie the game at four in the seventh. The Pirates added four more in the sixth and the eighth innings to break the game open and capture the eventual win. Gonzalez finished off his 2-for-4 night in the seventh with a two run home run, his 15th of the season. Scott Van Slyke hammered a solo shot in the eighth to cap off the night for the Dodgers. Kemp finished the evening 2-for-5. Ellis went 1-for-4 with two RBI’s. Carl Crawford was 1-for-4 with a run scored.
Hanley Ramirez and Yasiel Puig were both out of the lineup again after both were hit by a pitch on the left hand in St. Louis. The Dodgers, who fall to 56-46, send out Dan Haren to face off against Francisco Liriano in the series finale tomorrow.