Dodgers Lose to Reds, 11-2 : Baseball: Pugh gets victory to end Cincinnati’s 12-game losing streak. L.A. finishes 40-41 on road.

The biggest loser on the Cincinnati Reds’ pitching staff led them out of their worst losing streak in 48 years.

The Reds ended a 12-game losing streak Thursday behind Tim Pugh, who gave up five hits over seven rainy innings and started the comeback to an 11-2 victory over the Dodgers.

Pugh (9-15) rallied Cincinnati from a 2-0 deficit with a score-tying single in the second--his first major league run batted in--and Chris Sabo helped the Reds pull away with a two-run homer and an RBI double.

The Dodgers won the season series, 8-5.

It was the Dodgers’ last road game of the season. They finished 40-41, the fifth consecutive year they have failed to have a winning road record.

The Dodgers finish the season at home with three-game series against the Houston Astros and Chicago Cubs and a four-game series against the San Francisco Giants.

Thursday’s output was the Reds’ best offensive performance since a 14-13 victory over St. Louis on Sept. 7 and their first victory overall since Sept. 9.

Pugh, who hadn’t won since Aug. 23, struck out five and gave up only one hit after the first as he ended a team losing streak that was one shy of the major league high this season. The expansion Colorado Rockies lost 13 in a row.

Cincinnati broke out of a hitting slump against Tom Candiotti (8-9), who had trouble in the steady rain. He slipped around on the muddy mound--the grounds crew had to bring out new dirt every half-inning--and couldn’t get his knuckleball over the plate.

Candiotti lasted four innings, giving up five hits, four walks and one run. It was his second consecutive poor outing, coming off a nine-hit, seven-run pounding in 1 2/3 innings at Colorado.

His last two starts have been in the worst conditions for a knuckleball pitcher--cold and rain.

“When the ball is wet it has a tendency to flick off my fingers,” he said. “My knuckleball definitely wasn’t one of my better ones. That’s definitely a warm-weather pitch.”

Candiotti, who finished 2-2 against the Reds, had given up only five runs in his four previous starts (26 1/3 innings), but he has now lost four in a row.

Pugh, after struggling early, adjusted to the muddy conditions and ended his three-game losing streak. He gave up four consecutive hits and two runs in the first, with Dave Hansen and Henry Rodriguez getting the RBIs, then retired 15 in a row.

And the Reds rallied.

Sabo hit his 20th homer of the season and the 100th of his career in the fifth inning.

Said Sabo: “I’m 655 behind (Hank) Aaron. Watch out. Thirty-four years and I’ll catch him.”

This was the last time the Dodgers and Reds will compete as National League West rivals. The Reds will move to the NL Central next season.