Errors, homers lead to Bucs ‘L’

Associated Press

LOS ANGELES

Taking advantage of other teams’ mistakes was one of the hallmarks of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ back-to-back NL West championship seasons. So when the Pittsburgh Pirates committed two fielding errors in one inning, James Loney made them pay.

Loney hit his first home run of the season with two outs in the third, Andre Ethier had a two-run shot in the first and the Dodgers got Chad Billingsley enough runs this time in a 6-2 victory Friday night.

“That’s what championship-type teams do — take advantage of any kind of mistake and capitalize,” Loney said after the Dodgers snapped a five-game losing streak that equaled their longest of last season. “Maybe now we can get people talking about something else now, hopefully. I guess everybody expects us to get the key hits every time. We expect to do it ourselves, but it doesn’t always happen.”

The Dodgers, shut out Thursday night for the third time in five games, increased their margin to 5-1 with three unearned runs after shortstop Bobby Crosby and first baseman Jeff Clement committed errors on grounders by Xavier Paul and Ethier.

Matt Kemp struck out, but Loney took full advantage of a stiff wind blowing out toward right field and lined an 0-1 pitch into the first row of the lower box seats.

“I was hoping that a fan didn’t reach over,” Loney said with a grin.

Clement’s error was his first in 17 starts at first base this season. He never played the position in the majors before this year.