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Dodgers take advantage of bumbling Reds, complete sweep

May 22, 2008 - 6:14 AM LOS ANGELES (Ticker) -- Although the Cincinnati Reds don't visit Dodger Stadium very often, it has become a house of horrors for them.

Hiroki Kuroda won for the first time in nine starts and James Loney homered Wednesday, sending the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 5-2 win over the Reds and completing a three-game sweep.

Los Angeles took advantage of three runs off Reds miscues, including a wild pitch in the second, a failed pickoff attempt in the fifth by rookie Johnny Cueto (2-5) and a passed ball by Paul Bako that allowed the Dodgers to take a 4-2 lead after five innings.

"Whenever a team makes mistakes to give us more opportunities, we have to take advantage of those chances," Dodgers manager Joe Torre said.

Loney added his fifth homer of the season - a solo shot - in the seventh to account for the final margin for the Dodgers, who haven't lost a home game to the Reds since July 28, 2005 - a span of nine games.

"We knew that they (the Reds) were a hot team coming in, and we just wanted to play our game," Loney said. "I just got a pitch that I could handle and put a good swing on it."

Cincinnati entered this series with a six-game winning streak.

Kuroda (2-3), who had not won since his major league debut on April 4, allowed two runs and five hits with two walks and three strikeouts over a career-high eight frames. Closer Takashi Saito nailed down his eighth save in 10 chances with a perfect ninth.

"Kuroda has been giving us strong starts all year and picked up a win tonight," Dodgers catcher Russell Martin said. "He has just been a tough-luck loser in some of his starts."

The self-inflicted damage was the prevailing theme of the three-game set.

In the series opener on Monday, Reds rookie shortstop Paul Janish committed an error in the bottom of the ninth that led to the game-winning run in the Dodgers' 6-5 victory. One night later, catcher David Ross missed a throw home in the second inning, leading to two runs in a 4-1 setback.

"Good teams make you pay for defensive mistakes and they did that to us the whole series," Reds manager Dusty Baker said. "We just have to put this series behind us and move on."

On Wednesday, after rookie Joey Votto put Cincinnati ahead with an RBI groundout in the top of the second, Loney scored on a wild pitch from Cueto to tie the game at 1-1. Two batters later, Dodgers rookie Chin-lung Hu plated Matt Kemp from third with a bunt.

Even though the Reds knotted the score at 2-2 on a sacrifice fly in the fourth by Edwin Encarnacion, their sloppy play cost them again with two out in the bottom of the inning as Bako was unable to block Cueto's slider in the dirt, allowing rookie Blake DeWitt to score.

The final Cincinnati miscue doubled the Dodgers' lead to 4-2 when Cueto's pickoff attempt sailed well over the head of Votto at first base and into the stands, leading to Matt Kemp being awarded home.

"We just didn't play good defensively this series," Reds second baseman Brandon Phillips said. "(We) have to be ready to go out tomorrow and turn the page."

Cueto permitted four runs - two earned - and seven hits with three walks and two strikeouts over five frames in his 114-pitch outing.