LA Gory: Dodgers starter Kuroda rocked in ugly outing, gets only 4 outs

Kuroda gets only 4 outs against Phillies

PHILADELPHIA — Hiroki Kuroda’s first start of the postseason for Los Angeles was a bitterly brief one.

Two singles, a double, a triple, a home run. Philadelphia hit for the cycle only eight batters into Game 3 of the NL championship series, battering Kuroda on Sunday night and sending him to the dugout after only recording four outs.

Manager Joe Torre’s gamble on Kuroda badly backfired in an 11-0 loss.

Kuroda might not get another chance to prove he can shut down the Phillies.

The 34-year-old righty could get the start in a possible Game 7, but the Dodgers trail 2-1 in the NLCS and have two more games in Philadelphia where they are winless the last two postseasons.

“I think I made it hard on myself because I couldn’t throw the first-pitch strikes,” Kuroda said through an interpreter. “It just became harder and harder later on in the count. That’s it.”

The Japanese-born Kuroda never had anything from the start in front of a rabid Phillies crowd. He was rested — and rusty — in his first start since Sept. 28 because of a bulging disk in his neck. He sat out the NL division series against St. Louis.

A lengthy layoff didn’t affect Phillies starter Pedro Martinez in Game 2.

Torre said he didn’t know how he might use Kuroda the rest of the series. The four-time World Series champion manager refused to blame Kuroda’s injury or the cooler temperatures for his struggles.

“The ball didn’t behave,” Torre said.

Kuroda’s past success against Philadelphia was one reason Torre gave him the ball. Kuroda was 1-0 and had allowed only two earned runs in 19 innings in three career regular-season starts against Philadelphia.

Against the Phillies in Game 3 of last year’s NLCS, Kuroda earned the win with six innings of two-run ball.

This Game 3 was about as different for Kuroda as the weather on the two coasts for this series.

Perhaps he still wasn’t 100 percent, but the Phillies rocked him. Ryan Howard hustled for a two-run triple and Jayson Werth hit a two-run shot to make it 4-0 in the first inning.

Kuroda, 8-7 with a 3.76 ERA this season, allowed six runs in only 1 1-3 innings. He said his neck was fine.

“I’m not going to make that the excuse and I don’t think it was the reason,” Kuroda said.

Torre could have given the start to 12-game winner Chad Billingsley. Billingsley faded badly in the second half after a 9-3 start made him an NL All-Star. He bounced back with quality outings in his final two starts, but did not pitch in the NLDS.

Veteran starters Jon Garland and Jeff Weaver were dropped from the NLCS roster.

Billingsley quieted the Phillies after their quick offensive start, retiring nine of 10 in one stretch and made his case to start a possible Game 6 or 7.

Torre was convinced Kuroda could pitch after 49 painfree pitches in a simulated game last week in Arizona. He tossed an additional 21 in the bullpen. Pitching coach Rick Honeycutt came back from Arizona with a strong scouting report on Kuroda, making Torre’s decision for a Game 3 starter almost an easy one.

“I didn’t have any hesitation once I saw him early in that game that if things continued to go that way that we’d use him,” Torre said.

Kuroda threw 39 pitches against the Phillies and few of them were quality ones.

“I don’t second-guess the decision because we made it on what we saw, and his bullpen was good for this start,” Torre said.

Kuroda had the shortest outing for a Dodgers starter in an NLCS game since Bob Welch lasted 1 1-3 innings in Game 3 of the 1983 series against the Phillies. Welch, though, left with an injury.

“He had good life on his fastball, he just didn’t really have the command out there,” catcher Russell Martin said.

Randy Wolf will start Game 4 and the Dodgers have to hope he handcuffs Philadelphia’s big boppers to get back into the series.