LOS ANGELES — Rick Porcello fought off three line drives right back at him to get his first road victory of the season, and the Detroit Tigers got home runs from Miguel Cabrera and Magglio Ordonez in a 6-2 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday.
The Tigers avoided a three-game sweep in the first interleague series for both teams.
Porcello (4-4) allowed two runs and nine hits over six innings in his Dodger Stadium debut, striking out two and walking two. The 6-foot-5 right-hander is 4-0 with a 2.12 ERA in five interleague starts. His biggest out came in the sixth, when Manny Ramirez pinch-hit for Hiroki Kuroda with the bases loaded and grounded out to third on the first pitch to end the inning.
Kuroda (5-2) gave up three runs and six hits in six innings, striking out five and walking one. Ronald Belisario gave up a solo homer to Ordonez in the eighth.
Tigers center fielder Austin Jackson was out of the lineup after getting beaned by Ramon Troncoso in the eighth inning of Saturday's 6-4 loss. The rookie sported a bruise above his left eye, and his eyelid was puffy and nearly shut tight when he arrived at the ballpark.
Dontrelle Willis, who got the loss for the Tigers in Friday's series opener, was sent to bat for reliever Phil Coke in the ninth. Dodgers manager Joe Torre replaced Belisario with George Sherrill and Detroit skipper Jim Leyland countered with Adam Everett, who drove in Brandon Inge with a squeeze bunt. Johnny Damon followed with an RBI single.
Porcello, who turned Matt Kemp's line drive into an inning-ending double play in the first, had to fend off another liner by James Loney in the fourth before scrambling to get the force at second. Casey Blake followed with a grounder that Inge bobbled at third before throwing him out, snuffing the Dodgers' first real scoring threat of the game.
Porcello got drilled by another line drive in the fifth, this one off the bat of Blake DeWitt, whose single caromed off Porcello's right leg. DeWitt got to third on a single to right by Jamey Carroll that Ordonez bobbled for his second error of the season. A walk to Russell Martin loaded the bases for Xavier Paul, whose two-run single sliced Detroit's lead to 3-2.
Kuroda gave up hits to three of his first four batters, including an RBI single by Ordonez and Cabrera's two-run homer into the left field pavilion. Nine of Cabrera's 10 homers have come on the road.
Tigers rookie Danny Worth had three hits for the second time in just six big league games.
Notes
Flags flew at half-staff and a moment of silence was observed in memory of former Dodgers and Tigers pitcher Jose Lima, who died Sunday of an apparent heart attack at age 37. A video tribute played after the sixth inning. Dodgers 1B coach Mariano Duncan, who was invited by Lima to run a clinic for kids at the baseball academy he opened about two weeks ago in Pasadena, Calif., took the news particularly hard. "I talked to his wife this morning, and for me to hear that kind of news about somebody I knew very well makes me very sad," Duncan said. "He came to the ballgame on Friday, and they put him on the big-screen TV. He was a really fun guy, and nobody enjoyed the game more than him." … Dodgers manager Joe Torre said that SS Rafael Furcal (left hamstring strain) will be activated from the DL on Tuesday at Chicago.