Dodgers fall and stay behind, losing to Florida, 4-0
Dodgers’ pitcher Hiroki Kuroda found out firsthand what the fuss regarding Mike Stanton is all about.
Stanton is the highly touted 20-year-old slugger from the San Fernando Valley who was called up to the Florida Marlins a month ago after ripping apart the pitching in double-A ball.
Facing Kuroda in the second inning Wednesday night, Stanton launched his second home run in as many games at Dodger Stadium, this one a three-run shot.
The runs were more than enough for Josh Johnson, the Marlins’ All-Star pitcher, who shut out the Dodgers through eight innings as Florida went on to defeat the Dodgers, 4-0, in front of 41,947.
“One bad inning is one too many against a pitcher” such as Johnson, Kuroda said through an interpreter.
Johnson entered the game with the lowest earned-run average in the big leagues, an ERA that dropped even further to 1.70 against the Dodgers in a game that lasted only two hours 31 minutes.
Stanton, who attended Sherman Oaks Notre Dame High, was giddy this week when he finally got the opportunity to play at Dodger Stadium, where he had watched numerous games as a kid.
Play he did, hitting a double in his first at-bat at Chavez Ravine on Monday night, then accounting for all three of the Marlins’ runs Tuesday night with the help of a two-run homer.
The 6-foot-5 Stanton followed that up with his home run against Kuroda on a 1-1 pitch Wednesday that also brought home Dan Uggla and Cody Ross.
“I had fun all three nights, and playing well was just icing on the cake,” Stanton said.
Earlier in the second inning, the Marlins’ Jorge Cantu had singled, Uggla singled and Ross had doubled to drive in Cantu.
“It looks like he has a big upside,” Dodgers Manager Joe Torre said of Stanton. “The last two days he hurt us with hanging breaking balls.”
Kuroda (7-7) settled down after the Marlins’ four-run second inning, with the Japanese right-hander shutting out Florida for the next five innings until he was replaced by reliever Justin Miller in the eighth inning. Kuroda overall gave up six hits but did not walk anyone.
Other than the one poor inning, it was a rebound of sorts for Kuroda, who was coming off his worst start of the season, when he allowed six runs in just 12/3 innings to the Arizona Diamondbacks.
“It was great that I was able to recover like that, but when you lose a game it’s really hard to be satisfied,” he said.
As for Johnson (9-3), Torre had said before the game that the goal was to keep the game close while Johnson pitched and then “hopefully he runs out of pitches and you can maybe beat the bullpen.”
But Johnson never let the Dodgers get close, scattering six hits over eight innings while striking out eight and walking one. “We just didn’t put enough pressure on him,” Torre said.
Rafael Furcal went hitless, snapping a 10-game hitting streak, and the shortstop’s 12-game streak of runs scored also ended. Furcal’s streak had set the record for the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday night and tied Gil Hodges, who achieved the feat with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1953.
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