James Loney drives in 4 runs, Los Angeles Dodgers rally to beat New York Yankees 9-4

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Loney, Dodgers rally to beat Yankees 9-4

LOS ANGELES — James Loney drove in four runs to help the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the New York Yankees 9-4 on Saturday, tying the teams’ second regular-season series at a game apiece.

The Dodgers, who lost the opener 2-1 Friday night, stopped a season-worst four-game home losing skid. They’ve dropped 10 of 14 overall to fall out of first place in the NL West. They’ll need another win in the finale Sunday to equal what they did in the clubs’ first regular-season meeting in 2004, when they took two of three.

The Yankees’ three-game winning streak ended against the team they’ve beaten eight times in 11 World Series meetings, while their lead in the AL East shrank to two games.

Hiroki Kuroda (7-5) allowed four runs and seven hits in 5 1-3 innings, struck out five and walked three for just his second win in his last seven starts.

A.J. Burnett’s struggles on the mound continued with his shortest outing of the season. The right-hander (6-7) gave up six runs and six hits in three-plus innings, walked six and struck out five. He’s now 0-5 with an 11.35 ERA in his last five starts.

Burnett had said a day earlier that he thought his problems were caused by tipping his pitches. He’s had family concerns on his mind, too. His 89-year-old grandfather died Friday in Arkansas, where Burnett had gone on Thursday before rejoining the Yankees in Los Angeles.

The Dodgers rallied from deficits of 3-0 in the first and 4-2 in the third.

Loney’s two-run double on the first pitch from Burnett in the third tied the game at 4. After Burnett loaded the bases for the second time with no outs, Russell Martin hit a double-play grounder, giving the Dodgers a 5-4 lead.

They added two runs in the fourth, cashing in when reliever Boone Logan loaded the bases. Loney had an RBI single, with Matt Kemp getting thrown out at the plate on the same play, before Casey Blake’s RBI single made it 7-4.

The Dodgers extended their lead to 9-4 in the seventh on an RBI single by Rafael Furcal and an RBI double by Kemp

In the bottom of the first, the Dodgers got two runs on a ground-rule double by Manny Ramirez and Loney’s sacrifice fly.

Mark Teixeira hit a three-run homer in the first for New York. Alex Rodriguez made it 4-2 with a fielder’s choice grounder in the third.

NOTES: Dodgers manager Joe Torre, Yankees captain Derek Jeter and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar all attended John Wooden’s memorial service at UCLA before coming to the stadium. … Yankees RHP Phil Hughes, returns to the rotation Tuesday in Seattle. He’ll be followed by RHP Javier Vazquez before LHP CC Sabathia goes on Thursday. … Rodriguez and Torre apparently haven’t caught up with each other yet. … Jeter had a walk, a single and two strikeouts on his 36th birthday. … Yankees relievers Alfredo Aceves (back) and Sergio Mitre (oblique) are scheduled to throw off the mound Monday at the team’s spring training complex in Tampa, Fla. Both are likely to have rehab assignments before returning to the team.