Dodgers 11, Pirates 2

This is the first game this year that I haven't covered, so I lingered in the press box when it ended and discovered, much to my horror, that they are ACTUALLY PLAYING that awful Go Dodgers Go song in the stadium, immediately after Randy Newman's I Love L.A. ... Anyway, the boys went 6 for 10 with RISP tonight, and they were 6 for 7 at one point. This is the second time in the past four games that they scored 11 runs. The last time they did it was Saturday, and the didn't score any the next day. ... Kuo gave the Dodgers three good innings after one bad one that could have been much worse. It was that first inning when he drove his pitch count up, walking three consecutive batters with two outs to force in a run, but after that, he pitched pretty well. He struck out the next five in a row and only allowed one more baserunner. Esteban Loaiza took care of the final five innings and got the win because Kuo hadn't gone the requisite five. ... The even better news is that two of the slumping Dodgers, Andruw Jones and Russell Martin, broke out. Jones went 2 for 3 with a walk and scored two runs. Martin homered in the eighth. Oh, and Jeff Kent homered in the fifth, a three-run shot that tied him with somebody for somewhere on the all-time list, but I didn't write it down and the postgame notes aren't out yet. ... All the tentative plans for Nomar and LaRoche have become pretty much definite. Nomar goes to Salt Lake today to play another game with Vegas, then will meet the team in Atlanta. LaRoche will go with the team to Atlanta, then fly to Vero. He might stay in Atlanta and work out with the team through the series, though. Torre wasn't sure. ... Dodgers improve to 6-8, and although they are still four behind the Snakes, they did get out of the cellar, leapfrogging the Giants and Rockies to take over third.