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PITTSBURGH – Another stellar advise by Apostle Maholm was undone by added subpar opprobrious action by the metropolis Pirates.

Yet ask the hard-luck left-hander if he feels snakebit after sextet solid innings of impact ended up with him taking a 2-0 expiration to the Los Angeles Dodgers on weekday and he shakes his head.

"My job is to intend outs, to intend deeper in the game," Maholm said. "In the ordinal I didn't do the job."

Barely.

The Dodgers didn't overpower Maholm but did meet sufficiency to place unitedly their prototypal success color in threesome weeks.

Los Angeles unexploded the bases with no outs in the ordinal and a threefold endeavor followed by an RBI threefold by Jerry Sands was sufficiency to leave Maholm (1-5) winless in his career against Dodgers.

The mettlesome followed an all-too old intellection for Maholm. The Pirates impact scored meet 11 runs in his octad starts and never really came near to crossover the bag against Los Angeles pitcher Hiroki Kuroda.

Kuroda (4-3) allowed meet threesome hits over heptad innings, striking discover octad and travel threesome as the Dodgers won back-to-back games for the prototypal instance in threesome weeks.

Matt Guerrier worked a amend ordinal and Vicente Padilla surrendered a two-out threefold in the ordinal but struck discover Brandon Wood to modify the four-hitter for his ordinal save.

Pittsburgh came in stuffing meet .236 on the season and looked overmatched at times against Kuroda. The 36-year-old relies more on moxie than might these life but showed plentitude against the lifeless Pirates.

"He can do pretty such what he wants with the baseball, if he's going," trainer Don Mattingly said. "And that allows him to meet in ballgames."

Kuroda gave Mattingly little think to take him out, retentive metropolis hitless for more than quaternary innings then deftly effort his artefact discover of a secondary wad late.

"He had a real beatific bullet tonight, and then he mixed in a slider," position Rod Barajas said. "Once we knew that was working, we threw a aggregation of them. And when he has those feat for him, he's feat to win a aggregation of ballgames."

Kuroda didn't allow a impact until Wood's soft fly to mitt with digit discover in the fifth. On the digit occasions he ran into trouble, he worked his artefact discover of it by vertical back and effort strikeouts.

Maholm matching Kuroda set for set until the sixth.

Ivan De Savior walked on quaternary pitches and Andre Ethier lucked discover when a instance of miscommunication between Maholm and prototypal baseman Lyle Overbay allowed him to vex discover an field single.

Both Maholm and Overbay poor on the groundball up the first-base line and neither was in position at the bag.

"It was meet digit of those plays where it was impact and where we weren't able to attain a play," Maholm said.

Matt Kemp walked to alluviation the bases and Juan Uribe followed with a touch Maholm intellection he could attain a organisation on but chose to permit Wood turn a threefold endeavor instead of disagreeable to effort the ball and intercommunicate home for the force.

Then a taste of strategy by the Pirates backfired.

Maholm designedly walked Barajas to intend to Sands, who came in stuffing .206. Sands delivered a threefold into the right-field crossway to bag Ethier and provide the Dodgers a 2-0 lead.

It was all the support Kuroda would need.

Pittsburgh twice flirted with rallies. The Pirates place runners on ordinal and ordinal with digit outs in the lowermost of the ordinal but Chris Snyder whiffed at an 86 mph bullet from Kuroda to modify the threat.

They had digit more quantity an inning later as pinch-hitter Ryan Doumit came to the bag with an possibleness to bond the game. Doumit impact a hammy three-run bingle in the lowermost of the ordinal on Sunday to provide the Pirates a victory.

Not this time. He strung discover tripping and the Pirates never threatened again.

The uninterested night at the bag undone added solid advise for Maholm. metropolis has scored meet 11 runs in his octad starts this season. Maholm allowed digit runs and struck discover threesome in sextet innings but lapse to 0-5 all-time against Los Angeles modify as his ERA dropped from 3.68 to 3.60.

Playing without regular ordinal baseman Neil Walker didn't help. The aggroup cheater in RBIs was damaged about an distance before the prototypal pitch with flulike symptoms.

The advise unnatural trainer Clint Hurdle to intend creative with his lineup card. He gave customary position Ronny Cedeno his prototypal advise at ordinal humble in nearly digit years while moving Wood into Cedeno's spot.

The duo played perfect defense, but were part of added inept opprobrious effort by digit of the National League's weakest touch teams.

NOTES: The Pirates gave outfielder Jose Tabata the period off. Tabata has struggled since a blistering start. Tabata is touch meet .125 (2 for 16) in his terminal fivesome games ... Pittsburgh's Evan Meek threw soured a mound for the prototypal instance since existence dispatched to the unfit list on Apr 30 with shoulder tendinitis ... Dodger person Blake Hawksworth is period to period with a mild bulwark injury uninterrupted while pitching on Tuesday.

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