Dodgers Lose to Reds, 11-2 : Baseball: Pugh gets victory to end Cincinnati’s 12-game losing streak. L.A. finishes 40-41 on road.

CINCINNATI â€”  The biggest loser on the Cincinnati Reds’ pitching staff led them out of their worst losing streak in 48 years.

The Reds ended a 12-game losing streak Thursday behind Tim Pugh, who gave up five hits over seven rainy innings and started the comeback to an 11-2 victory over the Dodgers.

Pugh (9-15) rallied Cincinnati from a 2-0 deficit with a score-tying single in the second--his first major league run batted in--and Chris Sabo helped the Reds pull away with a two-run homer and an RBI double.

The Dodgers won the season series, 8-5.

It was the Dodgers’ last road game of the season. They finished 40-41, the fifth consecutive year they have failed to have a winning road record.

The Dodgers finish the season at home with three-game series against the Houston Astros and Chicago Cubs and a four-game series against the San Francisco Giants.

Thursday’s output was the Reds’ best offensive performance since a 14-13 victory over St. Louis on Sept. 7 and their first victory overall since Sept. 9.

Pugh, who hadn’t won since Aug. 23, struck out five and gave up only one hit after the first as he ended a team losing streak that was one shy of the major league high this season. The expansion Colorado Rockies lost 13 in a row.

Cincinnati broke out of a hitting slump against Tom Candiotti (8-9), who had trouble in the steady rain. He slipped around on the muddy mound--the grounds crew had to bring out new dirt every half-inning--and couldn’t get his knuckleball over the plate.

Candiotti lasted four innings, giving up five hits, four walks and one run. It was his second consecutive poor outing, coming off a nine-hit, seven-run pounding in 1 2/3 innings at Colorado.

His last two starts have been in the worst conditions for a knuckleball pitcher--cold and rain.

“When the ball is wet it has a tendency to flick off my fingers,� he said. “My knuckleball definitely wasn’t one of my better ones. That’s definitely a warm-weather pitch.�

Candiotti, who finished 2-2 against the Reds, had given up only five runs in his four previous starts (26 1/3 innings), but he has now lost four in a row.

Pugh, after struggling early, adjusted to the muddy conditions and ended his three-game losing streak. He gave up four consecutive hits and two runs in the first, with Dave Hansen and Henry Rodriguez getting the RBIs, then retired 15 in a row.

And the Reds rallied.

Sabo hit his 20th homer of the season and the 100th of his career in the fifth inning.

Said Sabo: “I’m 655 behind (Hank) Aaron. Watch out. Thirty-four years and I’ll catch him.�

This was the last time the Dodgers and Reds will compete as National League West rivals. The Reds will move to the NL Central next season.