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Loney helps Dodgers outlast Pirates

Sep 18, 2008 - 10:43 PM By Chris Adamski PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

PITTSBURGH (Ticker) -- James Loney sent the Los Angeles Dodgers home happy after a long road trip and a seemingly longer Thursday afternoon.

Loney's 12th-inning single to left with the bases loaded scored Russell Martin to give the Dodgers a 4-3 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates, finishing off a 7-3 roadtrip and temporarily extending their lead in the National League West Division to four games over the Arizona Diamondbacks (75-76).

The Dodgers' (80-73) magic number was reduced to seven, pending Arizona's game against San Francisco later Thursday evening.

"When you start to take games off the schedule, they mean so much more, especially with the position we're in," Dodgers manager Joe Torre said.

"As many opportunities that we didn't take advantage of, there's a big difference between 6-4 and 7-3, so to come back after losing a tough game (Wednesday) and stay with it today is gratifying."

After Craig Hansen (1-4) walked the bases loaded while retiring only one to open up the 12th, T.J. Beam allowed the line drive to the first batter he faced, Loney. The Dodgers' first baseman had been hitless in his previous five at bats.

"I was put in a position late in the game, and I was just trying to come through," Loney said. "With two strikes, you don't want to hit a hard ground ball right at somebody, but at the same time you want give your team a chance to win. You want to get it to the outfield and get it deep enough for the runs to score."

Andre Ethier and Matt Kemp each had two hits with Kemp scoring twice, and Blake DeWitt had a two-run single for Los Angeles, which has won 15 of 18.

"It was an interesting game," DeWitt said. "A lot of stuff happened today, but we kept battling, the pitching kept us in the game and we scored one there at the end to win the game."

Scott Proctor (2-0) pitched a perfect 11th to earn the victory, and Jonathan Broxton worked around two walks in the bottom of the 12th for his 14th save, getting Jason Michaels to pop out to shallow right with runners on second and third to end the game.

"It was a good team win," Proctor said. "A lot of guys made some great pays, some timely hitting at the end and some great pitching.

"It's all about winning, trying to win every series."

Nyjer Morgan went 2-for-4 with two steals and two runs scored for Pittsburgh, which fell to 7-23 lifetime at PNC Park against the Dodgers.

Both team's starting pitchers were solid. The Dodgers' Clayton Kershaw allowed only one run on two hits and two walks with five strikeouts in five innings before being pulled from the game despite throwing only 86 pitches to that point.

Two of the first four Pirates of the game collected a hit against Kershaw - who then did not allow a hit and retired 13 of his final 15 batters through his five innings. It was the second consecutive start in which Kershaw gave up only one run.

"We got the win, so that's obviously the most important thing," Kershaw said. "It's just one of those days today. It was just bad everything. My curveball really wasn't getting over for strikes, the fastball was pretty inconsistent today. But I battled through it. I just wish I could have gone deeper and gotten the bullpen a little bit of a break. It was just one of those games."

Michaels' single in the first scored Morgan, but Pittsburgh didn't score again until Takashi Saito entered the game in the sixth. With two outs and Nate McLouth on second, Saito intentionally walked Adam LaRoche to face his brother Andy, an ex-Dodger who entered the game batting .171

Andy LaRoche promptly smacked an RBI single to center.

That tied the game at 2-2 after Blake DeWitt's two-run fourth-inning single off Pirates starter Paul Maholm had given Los Angeles the lead.

Maholm was about as strong as Kershaw, only allowing three hits and striking out four in seven innings. But he did walk six and was charged with three runs, including Andre Ethier's two-out single driving in Matt Kemp to temporarily give Los Angeles the lead in the seventh.

"It was a tough game to lose," Maholm said. "They're a good team, but we had them. We were real close."

As a team, Pittsburgh walked 11 Los Angeles batters.

The Pirates got that run right back the bottom half of that inning with Luis Cruz's single that scored Morgan, who singled with two outs and stole second.

Morgan was thrown out at home with one out in the 10th while trying to score as second baseman DeWitt picked up the ball just in the outfield grass.

"It seems like we've always been right there; most of the games we just can't get that clutch hit or one play that we need," Andy LaRoche said. "It was kind of an example of that today."