Dan Haren ran into some early trouble against the Pirates in the series finale and that stung the Dodgers in the 6-1 loss. Haren drops to 8-8 after his five inning stint, an outing that saw five runs on four hits. Haren struck out six and walked three, giving up one home run. The hot Pirate bats exploded for four runs in the first and one in the second. Haren settled in after the initial early trouble, retiring eight straight before exiting the game. Haren threw 84 pitches with 50 of those registering as strikes. Jamey Wright, Paul Maholm, and Chris Perez combined to give up one more run in the three innings of relief at PNC Park.
The Dodgers offense was placed in another early deep hole in Pittsburgh, falling behind 5-0 before tacking one run of their own on the board. Justin Turner led off the sixth with a single to center fielder Andrew McCutchen. Dee Gordon followed with his 17th double of the season to move Turner to third with no outs. Matt Kemp grounded out to the shortstop, but Turner crossed the plate for the lone RBI of the game for the boys in blue. Adrian Gonzalez flew out to move Gordon to third, but Scott Van Slyke went down swinging to end the inning. Juan Uribe was the only Dodger to record multiple hits, going 2-4 at the plate. Miguel Rojas added a hit to go along with Gordon and the pinch hitting Van Slyke. The Dodgers were 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position, leaving six on base.
The Dodgers take their 56-47 back on the road, heading across the country for an important three game series with NL West foe San Francisco. Zack Greinke will get the nod in the opening game of the series against the Giants. Don Mattingly said he is more optimistic Yasiel Puig will be in the lineup against San Francisco than he is about Hanley Ramirez, but hasn’t ruled either of the injured stars out. Puig pinch hit in the eighth and drew a walk.