LOS ANGELES, Sept. 16 (UPI) — Pitcher Ross Ohlendorf put Pittsburgh in front with his first major league homer Thursday, sending the Pirates to a 6-2 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Pirates had runners on first and second with two away in the second when Brandon Wood delivered an RBI single that tied it at 1-1.

That brought up Ohlendorf for his 101st career at-bat in a five-year career with the New York Yankees and Pittsburgh. He drove the first pitch from Dana Eveland over the wall in right for a three-run shot that gave the Pirates the lead for good.

Ohlendorf (1-2) won his first game since July 10, 2010, allowing two runs on four hits in seven innings.

Eveland (2-1) gave up four runs on eight hits in taking the loss.

Evan Meek started the ninth for the Pirates, but loaded the bases with two away. Joel Hanrahan then came on to collect his 38th save by getting Aaron Miles on a fly ball to left.

The loss eliminated the Dodgers from the National League West pennant race.

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 13 (UPI) — Gerardo Parra knocked in four runs and Joe Saunders delivered a solid start Monday, boosting the Arizona Diamondbacks to a 7-2 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Parra capped a five-run Diamondbacks rally in the sixth inning with a two-run single and drove in two more with an eighth-inning double, helping Arizona win the opener of a three-game series.

Paul Goldschmidt and Ryan Roberts each went 2-for-4 with an RBI as first-place Arizona cut its magic number to clinch the National League West to seven with its 17th win in 20 games.

Saunders (11-12) held the Dodgers to two runs on four hits over seven frames, walking only one and striking out four en route to the victory.

Ted Lilly (9-14) yielded three runs on three hits in a 5 1/3-inning effort for Los Angeles.

Matt Kemp homered and Jerry Sands went 3-for-4 with an RBI in the loss.

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 11 (UPI) — Dana Eveland and two relievers combined on a five-hit shutout Saturday and the Los Angeles Dodgers stifled San Francisco 3-0.

Eveland (2-0), promoted from Class AAA Albuquerque this month, baffled the Giants on three hits and two walks over seven frames. He fanned three while tossing 63 of his 94 pitches for strikes.

Kenley Jansen and Javy Guerra each finished with one scoreless frame to complete the whitewash and deliver another blow to San Francisco, which fell 9 1/2 games behind first-place Arizona in the National League West.

Juan Rivera went 3-for-4 with an RBI single, and James Loney added two hits and a run scored for Los Angeles.

Ryan Vogelsong (10-7) went eight innings but was saddled with the loss for San Francisco after yielding three runs on nine hits and a walk. He struck out six.

By Eric Stephen

– Managing Editor

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Sep 9, 2011 – Clayton Kershaw matches up with Tim Lincecum for the third time this season as the Los Angeles Dodgers open up a three-game series against the San Francisco Giants at AT&T Park. The weekend series ends the Dodgers’ season-long four-city road trip which began as 11 games but will end as a 10-game trip thanks to Thursday’s cancellation in Washington D.C. against the Nationals.

Kershaw beat Lincecum in both matchups this season, as the left-hander did not allow a run on opening day in Los Angeles nor July 20 in San Francisco. In both games, Lincecum allowed one run in seven innings and got tagged with the loss. Kershaw could use a boost for his Cy Young candidacy, and two matchups against Lincecum in 12 days should provide that opportunity.

In addition to Friday night, both Kershaw and Lincecum will likely pitch against one another on September 20 in the opener of a three-game series in Los Angeles.

Kershaw is 17-5 on the season with a 2.45 ERA, and he leads the National League with 222 strikeouts, 10 behind Justin Verlander for the major league lead. Not to get too far ahead of ourselves, but with eight scoreless innings Friday night against the Giants, Kershaw would overtake Johnny Cueto of the Cincinnati Reds for the major league lead in ERA, 2.3588 to 2.3632.

The Dodgers beat the Giants in three of four games in Los Angeles to open the season, but the Giants have won six of the past eight meetings, including four of six in Los Angeles. The Dodgers have lost their last four series at AT&T Park, dating back to last season, and are 3-9 in their last 12 games in San Francisco. All three wins were starts by Clayton Kerhsaw.

Friday night’s 7:15 p.m. PDT game will be televised on Prime Ticket. For more Dodgers news and information, be sure to read True Blue LA.

Read More: Justin Verlander (P – DET), Tim Lincecum (P – SFG), Johnny Cueto (P – CIN), Clayton Kershaw (P – LOS), San Francisco Giants, Los Angeles Dodgers, Los Angeles Dodgers at San Francisco Giants, Sep 9, 2011 7:15 PM PDT

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The Washington Nationals’ two recent losing battles — against the National League and the weather — continued in vain Thursday at soggy Nationals Park, where the Nationals lost Game 1 of a doubleheader, 7-4, to the Los Angeles Dodgers before they watched rain wash out the second game, almost certainly for good.

The Nationals canceled Thursday’s second game, originally scheduled for Wednesday, and it will be made up only if the Dodgers remain in playoff contention at the end of the season. Barring that unlikely development — the Dodgers were 11¹/
₂ games out in the NL West entering Thursday night — the Nationals will play only 161 games this season.

The Nationals will skip Thursday’s scheduled starter, left-hander Ross Detwiler, in order to keep their rotation intact for the weekend intact. Stephen Strasburg will make his start Sunday at Nationals Park against the Astros as originally planned, with Tom Milone pitching Friday and John Lannan starting Saturday.

Strasburg pitching Sunday keeps him on schedule to start Sept. 16 at Nationals Park, too, allowing his first three starts back from Tommy John surgery to come at home.

The Dodgers do not come back to the East Coast all season, which is why the teams will not attempt to reschedule the game unless it is necessary. The Nationals have dealt with rainouts constantly this season.

“The weather has been tricky,” General Manager Mike Rizzo said. ”There’s a lot of decisions that go into cancelling a game. There are personnel decision. There are team decisions. There’s MLB decisions. I felt we did a good job of getting in as many games as we could.”

The Nationals lost Thursday afternoon’s game, in part, because their two-week backslide had turned Drew Storen from pitcher to observer. As they lost 11 times in the 14 games before Thursday, and Storen pitched only twice. The closer is marginalized – and made rusty – when there aren’t any wins to save.

Storen changed a tie game in the ninth inning into a 7-4 loss to the Dodgers. The Nationals dropped to 65-76, a season-worst 11 games under .500. They are now closer to the last-place Florida Marlins (2¹/
₂ games) than the third-place New York Mets (4¹/
₂ games before Thursday night) in the NL East. Their 12th loss in 15 games arrived when Dodgers outfielder Tony Gwynn Jr. roped a two-out, two-run double over Jayson Werth’s head in center field. Storen did not use his layoff as an alibi — “I’m not going to sit here and make excuses,” he said — but it probably contributed.

“It’s just one of those outings,” Manager Davey Johnson said. “He hadn’t had a whole lot of regular work here the last part of the year.”

Werth hit his 19th home run this season, a two-run blast to left in the third inning that tied the game at 4. The Nationals scored four runs on five hits and knocked out Dodgers starter Chad Billingsley in the third. But their offense did not a produce a hit either before or after that inning.

The Dodgers took a 4-0 lead by scoring two runs off Chien-Ming Wang in the first and third innings. But Wang followed his recent pattern and settled down, retiring 10 of the last 11 batters he faced.

MILWAUKEE, Aug. 18 (UPI) — Clayton Kershaw pitched eight shutout innings Thursday in helping the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 5-1 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers.

Kershaw (15-5) is tied with Philadelphia’s Roy Halladay and Arizona’s Ian Kennedy for the most wins this season in the National League. He allowed five hits, didn’t walk a batter and struck out six.

Los Angeles reliever Javy Guerra pitched the ninth and gave up a triple by Ryan Braun, a sacrifice fly from Prince Fielder and a single by Casey McGehee before closing out the win.

Fiedler has 90 runs batted in this season, second in the NL to Philadelphia’s Ryan Howard.

It was just the third loss in 21 games for the Brewers, who had only two runners reach third against Kershaw.

Rod Barajas connected for a solo home run in the second inning to hang the loss on Milwaukee starter Marco Estrada (3-8). That was the only run Estrada allowed in five innings but relievers Kameron Loe and Tim Dillard each gave up two runs.

Barajas doubled and scored on a Jamey Carroll base hit. Carroll made it 3-0 by scoring on a bunt single by Kershaw in the seventh off Loe. Juan Rivera had a sacrifice fly and Aaron Miles an RBI single in the eighth for the final Los Angeles runs.