Howie Kendrick’s 2-run single in 9th helps Dodgers beat Mariners
LOS ANGELES — Howie Kendrick had a game-winning two-run single in the ninth against Seattle closer Fernando Rodney to lead the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 6-5 victory over the Mariners on Tuesday night.
Rodney (0-1), who led the majors last season with 48 saves, was charged with his first blown save in three attempts. Justin Turner started the rally with a leadoff single, took third on Jimmy Rollins’ single and was erased in a rundown after third baseman Kyle Seager fielded Carl Crawford’s single.
Adrian Gonzalez walked to load the bases and Kendrick slapped the next pitch the other way to right field to give the Dodgers their second walkoff win in two nights. On Monday, Alex Guerrero gave the Dodgers a 6-5 win with a bases-loaded RBI single in the 10th inning.
Yimi Garcia (2-0) recorded his second big league victory in as many nights with a perfect ninth inning.
Nelson Cruz homered for the fourth straight game to match the longest streak of his career and Robinson Cano hit his first home run of the season for the Mariners. Starter Hisashi Iwakuma allowed four runs and six hits in five innings, struck out five and walked three.
David Huff gave up four runs and seven hits through four innings in his Dodgers debut. The left-hander, who signed as a free agent in January, made his first start since Sept. 29, 2013 with the New York Yankees.
Guerrero, who hit his first major league home run on Sunday, pinch-hit for Huff in the fourth and cut Seattle’s lead to 4-3 with a homer to left-center after a two-out walk to Joc Pederson.
But Juan Nicasio walked three of his first four batters in the fifth after relieving Huff, and Cruz scored the Mariners’ fifth run on a groundout by Willie Bloomquist.
Andre Ethier got the defending NL West champions a run closer in the sixth with his first homer of the season, a drive just inside the right field pole on Iwakuma’s 95th and final pitch.
Seattle manager Lloyd McClendon brought in right-hander Charlie Furbush in the seventh to face lefty-swinging Crawford and Gonzalez, and both singled to open the inning. But Yoervis Medina came on and struck out Kendrick before retiring Yasmani Grandal on a double-play grounder.
Cruz, who signed a four-year, $47 million, contract with the Mariners in December after leading the majors with a career-high 40 homers last season for Baltimore, drove a 3-2 pitch over the glove of a leaping Crawford at the left field fence in the first after a two-run shot to right by Cano.
Twenty of the Mariners’ first 28 runs this season had come on homers before Rickie Weeks increased their lead to 4-1 in the fourth with a two-out RBI single.