Los Angeles came into the night owning the best road record in the National League at 34-23, and tied with the Baltimore Orioles for the most road wins the Majors. The road success continued with their 2-1 win on Wednesday night in the third game of the Freeway Series, and the first at Angels Stadium. Dan Haren retired a career-high 16 straight batters to start the game before giving up a single to Hank Conger in the sixth inning. The next batter lined another single into center, but Yasiel Puig threw out Conger at third base.
Haren entered the game 0-5 with an ERA over ten over his last handful of starts. Tonight was a different story against his former team. Haren went 7 1/3 innings, giving up three hits and one run. Haren struck out four, improving to 9-9 this season. J.P. Howell and Brandon League kept the lead and handed the game over to Kenley Jansen in the ninth for his 32nd save. Jansen gave up a leadoff single, and faced Mike Trout with no outs. Trout struck out, and Pujols flied out. Jansen recorded another strikeout to end the game and capture the win.
Matt Kemp opened up the scoring for the Dodgers with a lead off solo home run to left field in the second inning. Kemp took a 3-2 fastball down the middle of the plate deep for his 14th home run of the season. Kemp now has six home runs in his last nine games after only having eight in his first 95 games this season. The rust from injuries has certainly worn off and Kemp is rounding back into form. Carl Crawford followed with a single on a sharp ground ball to second, and stole second base for his 14th stolen base this season. Crawford finished the evening 2-4. Andre Ethier, last night’s pinch-hit walk off hero, doubled in Crawford for the second run of the game. Ethier went 2-4 with an RBI, playing in right field tonight, as Kemp was in the DH spot. Justin Turner went 2-3.
The Dodgers move to 65-50 on the season, sitting two games ahead of the San Francisco Giants in the NL West. The boys in blue will send out Hyun-Jin Ryu in the closing game of the interleague Freeway Series to face off against CJ Wilson of the Angels.