Don Mattingly finally made his debut as an opposing manager at Yankee Stadium Wednesday and it ended like most other Dodgers games this season: With a loss.
The Yankees, having lost five of their last six games on the West Coast, won their second straight with a 6-4 victory over Los Angeles in a makeup of Tuesday’s rainout in The Bronx in the first game of a day-night doubleheader.
They had to hold on, thanks to Hiroki Kuroda faltering in the seventh and shaky work out of the bullpen in the eighth.
The Yankees built a 3-0 lead with a two-run double by Lyle Overbay in the second and an Ichiro Suzuki leadoff homer in the sixth.
Kuroda pitched six shutout innings before giving up a pair of runs in the seventh. Shawn Kelley entered with two outs and fanned Nick Punto with two runners on and the dangerous Yasier Puig on deck to preserve the lead.
The Yankees got some insurance runs in the bottom of the seventh when Los Angeles reliever Ronald Belisario had a meltdown, fumbling Vernon Wells’ soft liner and then firing the ball into center attempting to get Robinson Cano at second, allowing Jayson Nix to score.
Later in the inning, Ichiro’s flare to left plated two more runs, making it 6-2.
The Yankees needed the extra runs when Preston Claiborne allowed three shots in the eighth, including a two-run homer by Hanley Ramirez, narrowing the margin to 6-4.
David Robertson came in with one out and walked Andre Ethier and Juan Uribe. He retired the next two to get out of the inning.
Mariano Rivera pitched a scoreless ninth for the save, as Kuroda improved to 7-5.
Mattingly was greeted warmly by the small crowd that was made up of a considerable number of Dodgers fans, who saw Ramirez get four hits and Cuban sensation Yasiel Puig hammer the ball all over the field with two hits and a loud groundout to second that was stabbed by Cano.