Chad Kuhl and Pirates' 16 hits down the Dodgers

LOS ANGELES -- Chad Kuhl has made two career starts against the Dodgers and he has two wins to show for it.  The Pirates won the series finale 11-3 and the Pirates have now won all six games Kuhl has started for them.

The Pirates had their hitting shoes on today as they had 16 hits and received five walks today with a five-run first and four-run ninth to bookend the game.

The win gave the Pirates five wins in seven games against the Dodgers this season and they won both the home and road series against the Dodgers.

Kuhl pitched six innings, he gave up two runs, six hits, and struck out five. He joins the Giant right-hander Johnny Cueto as the only two starting pitchers to record two wins against the Dodgers this season.

Brett Anderson made his 2016 debut and he was greeted with a single by Josh Harrison on his first pitch.  Jody Mercer then hit a two-run home run.

Anderson was almost able to get out of the inning with no further damage but Sean Rodriguez hit an opposite-field three-run homer to make it 5-0.

The next batter, Adam Frazier, hit a ground ball and Anderson fell while trying to make a play,  He appeared to hurt himself and he was allowed to throw a few practice pitches before he recorded the last out of the inning.

Anderson gave up five runs, five hits and a walk while throwing 30 pitches in the first inning.

Brock Stewart came in to start the second inning and it was later announced that Anderson had suffered a mild left wrist sprain.

After the game, Brett Anderson was wearing a brace on his left wrist.  He was hopeful he would not miss his next start but he did wonder if he was a little "snake bit" today.

"I finally got weak contact after some hard hit balls in the first," Anderson said, "I dived and landed on my wrist weird and it kind of stiffened up."

At first, Anderson felt like he could continue in the game.

"It was just stiff, I did some warm up pitches and I said if I can't get the pitcher out, I shouldn't be out here."

But during the bottom of the inning, the wrist stiffened up again and he decided that given everything he had done to get back, he should go out of the game at that time.

"Hopefully caught it before it gets too bad," Anderson said, "they got an X-Ray, it looked fine, doctors checked it out, and said it looked good enough going forward."

"It is one of those things where you want to sleep on it and come in tomorrow and see what happens," Anderson said, "but the way I feel now, I don't expect I would get an MRI."

The Dodgers scored their first run in the first when Adrian Gonzalez singled in Josh Reddick.  After the Pirates scored in the top of the fourth, Joc Pederson hit his 18th home run to make it 6-2 Pirates.

With two outs in the top of the fifth, the Pirates added their seventh run on Josh Harrison's sun double.

The Dodgers made it 7-3 in the seventh when Howie Kendrick scored on a balk by Antonio Bastardo.

The Pirates completed the blow out with a four-run ninth inning.  Jung Ho Kang's 13h home run of the season gave the Pirates their third home run of the game.

The Dodgers did not lose any ground in the NL West as the Giants lost 8-7 to the Orioles.  The key blow in that game was a Jonathan Schoop three-run homer with two out in the ninth against Giant closer Santiago Casilla.  That homer completed an Oriole's seven-run comeback that began in the seventh inning.

Up next

The Dodgers will have Monday off as they travel to Philadelphia to start a three-game series there on Tuesday.  A pair of right-handers, Kenta Maeda and Vince Velasquez are scheduled to start at Citizens Bank Park.

Sunday particulars

Home runs: Jody Mercer (8), Sean Rodriguez (12), Joc Pederson (18), Jung Ho Kang (13)

WP: Chad Kuhl (3-0) - 6 IP, 2 runs 6 hits, 5 strikeouts

LP: Brett Anderson (0-1) - 1 IP, 5 runs, 5 hits, 1 walk