Dodgers blow lead but recover for 5-3 win over Pirates

PITTSBURGH -- Dodgers Manager Don Mattingly was supposed to watch Toby Keith in concert Saturday night. He never made it.

The Dodgers’ notoriously unreliable bullpen blew yet another lead, extending a game that should have been won in nine innings. So while the concert was starting, Mattingly was still in the visiting manager’s office at PNC Park, fielding questions from reporters.

“It cost me an hour of limo time, too,” Mattingly said, shaking his head.

But the manager said, “It’s worth it.”

It was worth it because the Dodgers beat the Pittsburgh Pirates in 11 innings, 5-3.

How the last-place Dodgers won for only the second time in five games is something Mattingly probably won’t want to relive any time soon.

Clayton Kershaw limited the Pirates to a run and three hits over seven innings, lowering his earned-run average to 1.84. But the Dodgers extended Kershaw’s winless streak to five starts, as recently appointed closer Kenley Jansen served up a ninth-inning home run to Travis Snider that tied the game, 3-3.

Juan Uribe and Nick Punto each drove in a run in the 11th inning, but the game was far from over. When deposed closer Brandon League forced Gaby Sanchez to line out to left field for the final out, the Pirates had men on second and third base.

“Any win’s a good win right now,” Kershaw said.

Kershaw remained incredibly diplomatic when talking about his personal winless streak, which is approaching a month. The last time he was credited with a win was May 20.

“It’s not easy to do sometimes, but you control what you can control and that’s what I’ve been trying to do,” he said.

In four of his five victories this season, Kershaw (5-4) gave up no runs. He threw a complete game in the other.

Kershaw has posted a 2.91 ERA over his last five starts. The only run charged to him Saturday was categorized as an earned run only because of a technicality. The run scored when shortstop Hanley Ramirez botched an easy potentially inning-ending double play in the first inning by throwing the ball over first baseman Adrian Gonzalez’s head.

“It’s disappointing because efforts like that, you don’t want wasted,” said right fielder Andre Ethier.

Ethier did his part, as he was three for five with a double and run batted in.

Brandon Cumpton, a marginal prospect making his major league debut, held the Dodgers scoreless until the fifth inning, when Skip Schumaker drove in A.J. Ellis with a single.

Ethier singled in Gonzalez in the sixth inning to give the Dodgers their first lead at 2-1. Ramirez scored on a sacrifice fly later in the inning to extend the margin to 3-1.

But rookies Chris Withrow and Paco Rodriguez combined to give up a run in the eighth inning, closing the gap to 3-2.

Jansen served up a home run to Snider in the ninth inning, and the game was suddenly tied.

“It was a little deflating,” Ethier acknowledged.

Ethier led off the 11th with a double to right-center and advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt by Mark Ellis. That set up the run-scoring hits by Uribe and Punto.

While the Dodgers were relieved to not lose this game, they acknowledged they had to do more. After all, they were still in last place and still nine games under .500.

“We need to start winning some games,” Kershaw said. “We can’t keep winning one, losing one, winning one, losing one. We dug ourselves in a hole, so we’re going to have to start putting some streaks together. That’s all there is to it.”

dylan.hernandez@latimes.com

twitter.com/dylanohernandez