Stults shuts out White Sox in Dodgers' win
Eric Stults pitched his first career complete game and capped a three-run fourth inning with a sacrifice fly, leading the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 5-0 victory over the AL Central-leading Chicago White Sox on Wednesday night.
Stults (2-0) scattered four hits, struck out three and walked one. The 28-year-old left-hander, a 15th-round draft pick in 2002, was recalled from Triple-A Las Vegas on June 17 when Brad Penny went on the disabled list with a sore shoulder. Stults beat Cincinnati 7-4 last Thursday in his season debut after taking a shutout into the seventh.
Stults threw 116 pitches. The Dodgers' only other complete game this season was on June 6, when Hiroki Kuroda beat the Chicago Cubs 3-0 with a four-hitter. Kuroda has been sidelined since June 13 because of tendinitis in his shoulder.
Gavin Floyd (8-4) gave up five runs -- four earned -- and six hits over 5 1-3 innings after going 4-0 in his previous five starts. The right-hander is 0-3 with a 10.50 ERA in three career starts against the Dodgers, including two with Philadelphia in 2006.
Floyd, who gave up six unearned runs in the second inning of last Thursday's 13-8 loss against Pittsburgh after a throwing error by third baseman Pablo Ozuna, gave up another unearned run during the Dodgers' two-run first.
Juan Pierre singled, stole second and continued to third on catcher A.J. Pierzynski's throwing error before Andre Ethier drove him in with a single. Jeff Kent reached on a two-base error by right fielder Jermaine Dye, who missed Kent's fly ball at the edge of the warning track as Ethier went to third. Russell Martin singled home the second run.
The Dodgers increased the margin to 5-0 with three runs in the fourth. James Loney led off with a single and stole second without a throw. Matt Kemp walked and Blake DeWitt drove in both runners with a double into the right-field corner. DeWitt advanced on Angel Berroa's sacrifice and scored on Stults' sacrifice fly, his first RBI in 24 big league plate appearances.
Floyd was relieved by Matt Thornton with the bases loaded in the sixth after Ozuna fielded Berroa's grounder and pulled first baseman Nick Swisher off the bag with his throw -- Chicago's third error of the game. Thornton, who has allowed only three of 20 inherited runners to score, struck out Stults and got Pierre to ground into a force play.
