Rubby De La Rosa gem doesn’t shine bright enough in 1-0 loss to Twins
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It didn’t seem that big of a deal. Certainly not game-changing stuff.
The Minnesota Twins’ Ben Revere led off the bottom of the first with a triple against Rubby De La Rosa and scored when the second batter, Tsuyoshi Nishioka, bounced back to the mound.
Minnesota’s first two batters, one run. And as it turned out, game over.
De La Rosa never allowed another run, but it was still one more than Scott Baker surrendered in his 7 1/3 innings.
De La Rosa and Baker were locked in an outstanding pitchers’ duel Wednesday afternoon, with Baker and the Twins coming out the 1-0 winners off that innocent-looking first-inning run.
Oh, to have a little of that offense from Monday, when the Dodgers beat the Twins 15-0.
De La Rosa went seven strong innings, holding the Twins to the one run on six hits and a pair of walks. And it was wasted. It was the rookie’s best start since joining the rotation June 7, and good timing, as it followed a pair of rocky starts.
It still left him with the loss, his record falling to 3-3 with a 4.41 ERA.
The Dodgers were so shackled, they seldom even had Baker (6-4) in trouble.
The Dodgers put together a pair of hits in the second with two outs, and Dioner Navarro flied out.
They got Dee Gordon to third base in the third inning on a single, sacrifice bunt and stolen base. And then Casey Blake popped out and Andre Ethier struck out.
In the sixth, Matt Kemp doubled and stole third with two outs, only for Baker to then induce James Loney into a groundout.
And that was it for would-be scoring threats. Baker did not even walk a batter until there was one out in the eighth, at which point he was immediately replaced with left-handed reliever Glen Perkins.
Perkins struck out Ethier on three pitches and, left in to face the right-handed Kemp, did the same to him. Either struck out three times on the afternoon. Matt Capps pitched a scoreless ninth for his second save in as many days against the Dodgers.
Making it all a tad harder for the Dodgers to digest, the Twins won despite going 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position. The loss dropped the Dodgers to 36-46.
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-- Steve Dilbeck