Dodgers’ Hiroki Kuroda shuts down Angels, 5-0

There’s an old baseball saying for what the Dodgers did in Angel Stadium on Friday night. They put up a “picket fence,” which was the visual on the scoreboard after they tallied single runs in five of nine innings for a 5-0 interleague victory over the Angels.

Crooked numbers can be tough to come by when your lineup looks like Matt Kemp and the seven dwarfs. Kemp entered the game with 22 home runs; the rest of the lineup — and that’s with a designated hitter — combined for 17 homers, seven by Andre Ethier.

But beggars and pitchers hungry for scraps of support can’t be choosy. When you’re in last place and 10 games out in the National League West, you take any kind of win.

And when you’re 0-6 in your last seven starts despite a 3.54 earned-run average, and your team scored six runs in those games, you’ll gladly take five one-spots.

Dodgers right-hander Hiroki Kuroda gave up three hits in seven innings, striking out four and walking one, to earn his first victory since May 17.

Mike MacDougal and Javy Guerra pitched the final two innings to hand the Angels their 10th shutout loss, one more than they had in all of 2010.

The Angels also lost right fielder Torii Hunter, who was hit on the top of the left hand by a Kuroda pitch in the first inning and pulled in the third. Preliminary X-rays were negative, but Hunter underwent a CT scan late Friday night “to make sure they didn’t miss anything,” Manager Mike Scioscia said.

Angels starter Tyler Chatwood hit Ethier with a pitch in the fourth, and Angels reliever Bobby Cassevah hit A.J. Ellis with a pitch in the seventh.

With two out in the bottom of the seventh, Kuroda (6-9) threw a first-pitch fastball that Mark Trumbo jack-knifed to avoid.

Two pitchers later, Kuroda, who hit one batter in 1012/3 innings entering the game, drilled Trumbo on the thigh. Plate umpire Dale Scott issued warnings and there were no further hostilities, but Scioscia fumed after the game.

“You like to give guys the benefit of the doubt, but he almost hit him with the first pitch, and the second time it was a laser right at him,” Scioscia said. “I think the intent was obviously there.”

Asked about the hit batsmen, Kuroda, through an interpreter, said, “They were all accidents.”

The Dodgers were sparked by Tony Gwynn Jr., who reached base six times with a double, two singles and three walks and scored twice. He is the fifth player to bat leadoff for the team.

“We’ve tried so many different guys there,” Manager Don Mattingly said. “It seems like this time [Gwynn] has taken charge a little bit.”

The Dodgers had 12 hits in five innings against Chatwood, but they nickel-and-dimed him, which seemed fitting for a team that filed for bankruptcy protection Monday.

The capper came in the seventh inning when the Dodgers scored their fifth run without a hit. Dee Gordon stole second, then home as part of a double steal.

They scored in the first on Ethier’s sacrifice fly, in the second on Gwynn’s softly flared single to left, in the third on Aaron Miles’ bloop single to left and in the fourth on Kemp’s sacrifice fly.

They didn’t even need a hit to score in the seventh. Speedy Dee Gordon reached on a fielder’s choice and stole second. Gwynn walked, and Gordon swiped third when catcher Hank Conger threw to first on a pick-off attempt.

Gwynn then pulled up on a stolen-base attempt, and while he was in a rundown, Gordon raced home ahead of second baseman Maicer Izturis’ throw for a 5-0 lead.

mike.digiovanna@latimes.com