De Leon, Dodgers dump Yankees
NEW YORK -- Rookie Jose De Leon pitched five effective innings, and Yasiel Puig and Justin Turner hit late home runs as the Los Angeles Dodgers capitalized on two errors by the New York Yankees in an 8-2 victory Monday night.
De Leon (2-0) allowed two runs and three hits in his second career start. He threw 83 pitches. In 18 combined starts with Los Angeles and Triple-A Oklahoma, the right-hander is 9-1.
De Leon had a lead before he took the mound, and the Dodgers scored all of their runs in the first three innings en route to a 6-1 lead.
Adrian Gonzalez drove in a run on a first-inning groundout. An inning later, Chase Utley reached on a fielding error by right fielder Aaron Judge that produced two runs, and Corey Seager followed with an RBI single.
Howie Kendrick had an RBI infield single in the third and came home on a throwing error by catcher Gary Sanchez.
Puig came up as a pinch hitter with two outs in the eighth and gave the Dodgers a 7-2 lead when he lined a full-count fastball into the glove of a fan in the first row of the right field seats for his 10th home run. Turner provided the final margin when he hit his 27th home run to right field with two outs in the ninth.
Starlin Castro and Judge hit long home runs for the Yankees, who have lost two straight after a season-high, seven-game winning streak. New York (76-67) is five games behind the first-place Boston Red Sox in the American League East, and the Yankees remain two games out in the AL wild-card race.
New York's Bryan Mitchell (1-1) made his second start but was unable to duplicate his five-plus scoreless outing from Wednesday. Mitchell allowed six runs (two earned) and eight hits in 2 1/3 innings and was lifted after 47 pitches.
The Dodgers (81-62) began the game with two singles and took a 1-0 lead when Yankees first baseman Tyler Austin was unable to scoop the throw from shortstop Ronald Torreyes on a potential double play grounder by Gonzalez.
Los Angeles extended its lead to 3-0 on a three-base error by Judge with two outs in the second
Utley hit a fly ball to the right-center-field warning track, the ball went off Judge's glove and two runs scored. Utley then scored the fourth run on a single by Seeger.
The Yankees got a run back when Castro opened the second by sending a full count breaking ball into the second deck in left field, but the Dodgers capitalized on shoddy defense to take a 6-1 lead in the third.
Kendrick made it 5-1 when Mitchell was unable to make a throw on his soft grounder to the third base side of the mound. Kendrick then stole second and Josh Reddick scored when catcher Gary Sanchez's throw sailed into center field.
Judge opened the fifth by driving a 2-0 pitch into the lower rows of the left-center-field bleachers.
NOTES: 1B Adrian Gonzalez was the designated hitter for Los Angeles, and manager Dave Roberts said OF Andre Ethier and 3B Justin Turner also will start at DH during the series. ... New York SS Didi Gregorius, who was in a 3-for-34 slump, was out of the starting lineup. Manager Joe Girardi said Gregorius is feeling "beat up" from recent games. ... Roberts said he plans on starting Yasiel Puig in left field Tuesday. Puig made his third career appearance there Saturday in Miami. ... Yankees OF Aaron Hicks (strained right hamstring) did some running and took swings in the batting cage Monday. Hicks is expected to go the team's minor league complex in Tampa, Fla., to face live pitching this weekend. The team will made a decision on whether to activate him when it visits the Rays next week.