Posted Thursday, July 5th 2012 @ 12am
Aaron Harang pitched seven strong innings against his former team and the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the Cincinnati Reds 4-1 on Wednesday night to win consecutive games for the first time since June 9-10.
Harang (6-5) allowed one run and three hits, struck out five and walked one in his second career start against the team he pitched for from 2003-10. The right-hander last faced the Reds and beat them on June 21, 2002, with Oakland.
Kenley Jansen pitched a perfect ninth to earn his 14th save in 17 chances.
The Dodgers took two out of three against the Reds to snap their skid of four straight series losses. They had not won a series since June 15-17 against the Chicago White Sox, while they won two in a row for the first time since June 9-10 at Seattle.
The Dodgers wasted no time in jumping on Mike Leake (3-6), who gave up four consecutive hits to open the game. The right-hander allowed three runs and six hits in seven innings, struck out five and walked none in a rocky follow-up to his complete-game victory at San Francisco last Friday.
Dee Gordon led off with a double. Luis Cruz had an RBI single and Bobby Abreu 's single sent Cruz to third. James Loney singled home Cruz. Abreu scored when Adam Kennedy grounded into a fielder's choice to first baseman Joey Votto , who got the force at second before shortstop Zack Cozart 's relay throw went past first base to bring home Abreu.
The Reds scored their only run on Devin Mesoraco 's fifth homer with one out in the fifth. He sent a 1-0 pitch from Harang into the lower left field seats.
The Dodgers added a run in the eighth on Kennedy's sacrifice fly.
