Dodgers find the Haren necessities

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By Jon Weisman

How effective was Dan Haren tonight? In matching his longest outing of the season in innings, he had his second-shortest start of the season in pitches.

Scattering 87 tosses over 7 1/3 frames, retiring the first 16 batters he faced and holding Mike Trout, Albert Pujols and Josh Hamilton to a combined 0 for 9, Haren emerged from a five-start tailspin and left tonight’s game against the Angels leading 2-0, with one out and one on in the eighth.

The Dodgers scored two runs on five baserunners in a 38-pitch second inning off Angels starter Matt Shoemaker – including Matt Kemp’s 14th home run and six in his past nine games – but otherwise gave Haren little to work with offensively. The Dodgers did back him defensively, particularly when Yasiel Puig threw to Justin Turner and nailed Hank Conger trying to go from first to third base on a single, in a sixth inning ended that with Kole Calhoun lining out to Adrian Gonzalez. Dee Gordon also did work.

Otherwise, Haren was in control, allowing three singles, walking none and going to ball three on only two of 24 batters. With a 10.03 ERA in his previous five starts, Haren had his best outing since he pitched seven innings of one-hit shutout ball against Cleveland – another American League team – on June 30.

Haren vs. the AL in 2014: 37 1/3 innings, 25 hits, 13 earned runs, five home runs, eight walks, 25 strikeouts, 3.13 ERA.

J.P. Howell replaced Haren one out after Erick Aybar’s bunt single to start the eighth. Pinch-hitter C.J. Cron singled to left to put runners at the corners. Brandon League, the NL’s top double-play reliever, got a fly ball from pinch-hitter Chris Ianetta that scored the first run off Haren but provided an important second out. The next batter, David Freese, grounded to short. Backup shortstop Miguel Rojas threw in the dirt, but Gonzalez dug it out to take the Dodgers to the ninth with the lead.

Update: Kenley Jansen entered the game having struck out the side Tuesday against the Angels and with 22 strikeouts and a 0.55 ERA against 10 baserunners in his last 16 1/3 innings. Calhoun singled and stole second after Jansen went 3-0 and then 3-2 on the count to Trout. Jansen came back to strike Trout out on a 96-mph cutter, and Pujols flied to Puig in center. Finally, Hamilton fanned on another 96-mph cutter, high in the zone.

The Dodgers won, 2-1, improving to 65-50, the fourth-best record in the Major Leagues. They are 11-7 against winning teams since the All-Star Break.