Dodgers never trail in 6-4 victory over the Twins

KEY MOMENT: Jason Kubel’s two-out throw from left field beat the Dodgers’ Drew Butera to the plate for what should have been the last out of the third inning, but Butera was able to evade the tag of catcher Kurt Suzuki to score the tying run. The Twins challenged the call and after a two-minute video review the ruling was upheld. The Dodgers scored another run in the inning and never trailed again.

AT THE PLATE: Five of the Dodgers’ six runs scored with two outs. Yasiel Puig, Adrian Gonzalez, Andre Ethier and Butera had two hits each, with Puig scoring twice and knocking in a run. Matt Kemp had a hit, a run and two walks, and Juan Uribe drove in two runs. Eduardo Escobar had a career-high four hits and two runs batted in for the Twins, who scored three times against Paco Rodriguez in the ninth inning to make it close.

ON THE MOUND: Zack Greinke upped his record to a major league-best 5-0 and lowered his earned-run average to 2.04 by holding the Twins to an unearned run through six innings, striking out six. The outing also extended to 21 Greinke’s string of starts in which he has gone at least five innings and given up two runs or less. It’s the longest such streak in the majors in 100 years.

NEW MATH: Wednesday’s win was the 10,000th for the Dodgers, or not, depending on how you count. The team’s media guide says the team started the season 28 wins short of the milestone, which only the New York/San Francisco Giants and Chicago Cubs have reached. However, that record did not reflect 13 wins from the 1899 season that were thrown out because of the participation of an “illegal” player and other rules infractions. After conferring with the Elias Sports Bureau, baseball’s official statistician, the Dodgers reinstated the disputed wins last month, making Wednesday’s win the team’s 10,000th.

HERE’S THE CATCH: The Dodgers finally admitted the obvious, mainly that their catchers aren’t hitting, by selecting the contract of Miguel Olivo from triple-A Albuquerque and sending Tim Federowicz to the minors. Federowicz hit .109 in 46 at-bats, which isn’t all that bad when you consider the three catchers the Dodgers have used this season were hitting a combined .143 with one run batted in before Wednesday. Olivo was batting a team-high .390 with four home runs and a team-leading 18 RBIs at Albuquerque. To create a spot for Olivo on the 40-man roster, the Dodgers moved right-hander Chad Billingsley to the 60-day disabled list.

EXTRA BASES: Clayton Kershaw struck out nine in a five-inning rehab start for double-A Chattanooga and, barring any complications, is expected to return to the Dodgers rotation next week in Washington. Kershaw hasn’t pitched in the majors since his season-opening win over the Arizona Diamondbacks in Australia in March. In two minor league starts, Kershaw gave up two earned runs in 10 innings, striking out 15.

UP NEXT: The Dodgers will send right-hander Dan Haren (3-0, 2.03 ERA) against Twins right-hander Mike Pelfrey (0-2, 7.32) in the first game of Thursday’s day-night doubleheader at 10 a.m. PDT. For the second game, scheduled to start at 4 p.m. PDT, both teams took advantage of the 26-man rule to call up minor leaguer players for spot starts. Minnesota will go with left-hander Kris Johnson, who has a 2.86 ERA through four starts at triple-A Rochester, and the Dodgers say they are likely to counter with right-hander Red Patterson, who would be making his big league debut. The 26-man rule allows teams to temporarily expand their roster by one player when they are forced to play an unscheduled doubleheader. Thursday’s get-away twin bill was made necessary when Tuesday’s scheduled series opener was postponed because of rain and freezing temperatures. On the air, both games: TV: SNLA. Radio: 570, 1020. TV: SNLA.