I guess we shouldn't have expected another 15-0 game, after all. The Dodgers had a very familiar loss on Tuesday, 6-4 to the Twins. Ted Lilly struggled, which hasn't really been news so far this season. Don Mattingly used Dioner Navarro to pinch hit again in the ninth inning, this time for Jamey Carroll. These things we are used to. But hey, Aaron Miles homered!
Lilly ran into some trouble tonight with Ben Revere and Jason Repko. Not only did the duo, with respective on-base percentages of .291 and .224 coming into tonight, reach base three times each, but each also stole two bases, ultimately scoring runs each time they stole a base. Lilly has allowed 19 stolen bases in 21 attempts this season, including at least three (in his last three starts) where the runner steals second base after Lilly, seemingly in slow motion, throws to first base.
Still, the Dodgers managed to claw back from 3-0 and 4-1 deficits. In the top of the fifth, Miles hit his first home run as a Dodger, a line drive to left field, continuing his June to remember. Miles this month is hitting .419/.418/.500, and yes his OBP is less than his batting average, thanks to two walks and three sacrifice flies. Andre Ethier tied the game with a two-run single in the fifth.
However, Lilly's other archenemy, the home run, reared its ugly head in the bottom of the fifth, in the form of a Luke Hughes two-run shot to give the Twins a 6-4 lead, a lead that would hold up despite the Dodgers putting at least one runner on base in each of the last four innings. Jamey Carroll was thrown out at the plate to end the seventh, trying to score from second on a single by Casey Blake to Repko in left field.
Lilly is the first Dodgers starter to have no strikeouts and no walks since Chad Billingsley on July 17, 2009. The last Dodgers starter to have no walks and no strikeouts and actually get a win was Pedro Astacio on April 24, 1994.
Rubby De La Rosa gets the start in tomorrow morning's rubber game, facing Scott Baker for Minnesota.
WP - Brian Duensing (5-7): 5 IP, 4 hits, 4 runs, 4 walks, 3 strikeouts
LP - Ted Lilly (5-8): 4 2/3 IP, 9 hits, 6 runs
Sv - Matt Capps (12): 1 IP, 2 walks