Free Live Odds - Scores and Odds - Sports News - Sports Information - Live Scores - Sports Statistics - Sports Articles - Sports Standings - Live Scoreboard - Live Odds - Sporting Events - Live Lines

(Sports Network) - Two teams headed in opposite directions at the moment meet again tonight at Dodger Stadium, where the surging Pittsburgh Pirates play the second matchup of a three-game set with a reeling Los Angeles club.

The Pirates posted a 6-4 come-from-behind victory in Monday's series opener, Pittsburgh's fourth consecutive win. The Bucs went ahead on Nate McLouth's three-run homer off Dodgers closer Takashi Saito with two outs in the top of the ninth inning.

Pittsburgh's Jose Bautista added a two-run shot earlier in the night, while Xavier Nady finished 2-for-4 with an RBI in the win. Freddy Sanchez collected three hits for the Pirates, who will be searching for their first five-game win streak since April 22-27 of last season.

McLouth's blast also gave the early-season surprise a hit in all 13 of the team's games this season. The outfielder is batting .383 (23-for-60) during the tear and is currently tied with Nady for second among National League hitters with 14 RBI.

Tyler Yates (2-0) picked up the win with a scoreless eighth inning, while Matt Capps held the Dodgers off the board in the ninth to register his fourth save. Pirates starter Zach Duke allowed four runs (3 earned) on eight hits through the first six innings.

Saito (1-1) was tagged for three runs and four hits in the ninth to suffer his first blown save of the year. Starter Hiroki Kuroda was in line for the win after holding Pittsburgh to three runs over six innings of work.

The Dodgers, who suffered their sixth loss in their last seven games, received a pair of hits and a run scored from Russell Martin on the evening. Kuroda helped his own cause with an RBI double in the fifth inning.

Los Angeles will turn to Hong-Chih Kuo tonight in hopes of ending its recent struggles. The oft-injured left-hander has been shifted from the bullpen into the rotation in place of a struggling Esteban Loaiza, although Kuo did make an emergency start earlier this year.

Kuo was called upon to start an April 2 contest with San Francisco after the team decided to scratch Chad Billingsley because of a threat of rain. The native Korean hurled three scoreless innings that night and allowed just one hit in a no decision.

He has equally as good in a long relief stint at Arizona on April 8, throwing 3 2/3 shutout innings after replacing an ineffective Billingsley.

Kuo has faced Pittsburgh five times previously, including a pair of starts, but is 0-3 with a 6.39 earned run average lifetime against the Bucs. In his lone encounter with the Pirates last season, the 26-year-old was dealt a loss after surrendering two runs on five hits over 4 2/3 innings.

Pittsburgh will send out Matt Morris in tonight's tilt as the veteran tries once more to pick up his first win of 2008.

Morris received a loss to the Chicago Cubs on Thursday after surrendering seven runs and 11 hits in a seven-inning stint. Three of those runs were unearned, however, and the Cubs scored just twice off the right-hander over the first five frames before Morris fell apart in the sixth.

The 33-year-old had a no decision in his season debut on April 4, when he gave up four runs (3 earned) over five innings at Florida.

Over the course of his 11-year career, Morris has gone 4-5 with a 5.57 ERA in 15 games (13 starts) against Los Angeles. He did defeat the Dodgers in Los Angeles last April as a member of the San Francisco Giants, working 7 1/3 innings and permitting just three runs in that outing.

The Dodgers will celebrate the 61st anniversary of Jackie Robinson's historical breaking of baseball's color barrier with a special pregame ceremony this evening. Don Newcombe, a former teammate of Robinson with the Dodgers, will throw out the game's first pitch and the entire Dodgers team will wear Robinson's No. 42 for the contest.

Robinson became baseball's first African American player when he took the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers against the Boston Braves on April 15, 1947.

The Dodgers took two of three games from the Pirates at home last season and are 9-5 against Pittsburgh at Chavez Ravine since 2005. Los Angeles also won five of the seven overall encounters between the clubs last year.