Bucs fall to LA on late HR

Associated Press

LOS ANGELES

The Pittsburgh Pirates faced four of the NL’s elite starting pitchers in their first four games of the season, yet still emerged with a split.

That impressive result didn’t feel particularly comforting to the Pirates after Andre Ethier set off a celebration at Dodger Stadium at their expense.

Ethier hit a tie-breaking homer off Jason Grilli with two outs in the eighth inning Tuesday, sending the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 2-1 victory on Dodger Stadium’s 50th anniversary.

Pittsburgh opened a nine-game trip with just five hits against Clayton Kershaw and the Dodgers’ bullpen. After Grilli (0-1) yielded the decisive homer, Andrew McCutchen grounded into a game-ending double play.

Yet the disappointment of a dramatic loss didn’t erase the satisfaction of another strong effort under difficult circumstances for the Pirates — and their veteran setup man certainly wasn’t fazed by his failure.

“I love the adversity,” Grilli said. “If I don’t, then I shouldn’t be doing this. But I relish it. I mean, I’m not happy about what happened today, but I can’t wait to get the ball the next time, because I’m going to win that battle. I guess the good thing about being a reliever is that you can come back out tomorrow and redeem yourself and be a hero.”

Pittsburgh didn’t get caught up in the party around the Dodgers’ home opener, either. Kevin Correia shut down Los Angeles’ offense after Matt Kemp’s RBI groundout in the first inning until the Pirates evened it in the seventh on Matt Hague’s run-scoring groundout.

Correia yielded four hits and two walks over six innings in his season debut for Pittsburgh after missing the final six weeks of last season with a strained oblique, matching Kershaw’s seven-inning effort for the Dodgers.

“It’s a small sample, but we’ve been pitching great,” Pirates catcher Rod Barajas said. “But we’ve had some tough matchups: [Roy] Halladay, [Cliff] Lee, [Cole] Hamels, and then we get Kershaw, but we’re competing day in and day out. So no matter who’s on the mound, we’re going to battle. Hopefully we come out on top more often than not.”