Rubby De La Rosa had the best start of his young career, but unfortunately the Dodger offense was unable to score, as they fell 1-0 to the Twins in the series finale at Target Field. Scott Baker struck out nine in his 7 1/3 scoreless innings to get the win. The Dodgers have lost their last five interleague road series.
De La Rosa allowed a leadoff triple to Ben Revere to begin the game, but really settled down after that. Revere scored on a 40-foot grounder up the first base line by Tsuyoshi Nishioka, but De La Rosa was stingy after that. Rubby pounded the strike zone all day, throwing 69 of his 99 pitches for strikes, and lasted a career-high seven innings, and retired 10 of 11 batters at one point. It was the longest outing for De La Rosa since May 10, when he pitched seven innings for Double A Chattanooga.
The Dodgers put all of three runners in scoring position today -- in the second, third, and sixth innings -- but only in the third inning did they have a chance to drive home a run with less than two outs. In the eighth inning, things looked promising after a walk to Casey Blake forced Baker from the game, with Andre Ethier and Matt Kemp due up with one out. Left-hander Glen Perkins struck out Ethier on three pitches and, somewhat surprisingly, was left in to face Kemp, hitting .338/476/.600 this season against southpaws (then again, Kemp also tattoos right-handers to the tune of .330/.398/.638, too). The decision to keep Perkins in wasn't psycho, as he needed just three more pitches to strikeout Kemp, ending the inning.
Notes
- Baker in his last four home starts has allowed one run in 31 2/3 innings
- Blake Hawksworth walked a batter and struck out two in the eighth inning. He struck out five of the seven batters he faced during the series
- Trent Oeltjen singled as a pinch hitter in the ninth inning, and was 5-for-5 with two walks in the series.
- The Dodgers finished June with a 10-16 record. Counting March as part of April and October as part of September, the best Dodgers monthly record in the last six months was 14-14, during March/April this season.
- The Dodgers are off Thursday, but begin a series in Anaheim Friday against the Angels, with Hiroki Kuroda and Tyler Chatwood facing off in the opener.
WP - Scott Baker (6-5): 7 1/3 IP, 6 hits, 1 walk, 9 strikeouts
LP - Rubby De La Rosa (3-3): 7 IP, 6 hits, 1 run, 2 walks (1 intentional), 4 strikeouts
Sv - Matt Capps (13): 1 IP, 1 hit