LOS ANGELES — Jeff Locke is learning a lot in his first September callup, lessons that he hopes pay off next spring in a big-league roster spot.

His second major league start resulted in a 7-2 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday night, but Pittsburgh manager Clint Hurdle liked some of what he saw from Locke (0-2).

The 23-year-old left-hander gave up three runs and five hits in three innings, walked two and struck out none, having been recalled from Triple-A on Sept. 6.

“There were some nice sequences, but unfortunately, the first run was on a changeup and a breaking ball up, and both those guys jumped on those pitches,” Hurdle said. “Then after that, he battled. We’ve just got to get him to work on getting the ball down with more consistency. But there’s something there that you like and you want to see more of.”

Locke, who lives in New Hampshire, said it was his first trip out of the Eastern time zone. To compensate, he stayed up late and slept in after the Pirates arrived for the four-game series that began Thursday.

“It was very exciting,” he said. “It’s definitely an honor to come here and pitch in one of the legendary stadiums of all time. I had this adrenaline going. But I wasn’t nervous at all. I just left a lot of pitches up and got into a lot of deep counts.”

Locke made 68 pitches, with 30 coming in the third inning, which caused Hurdle to pull him.

“It was quick, but the biggest reason it was quick was because of the number of pitches he threw in the third,” the manager said.

The Dodgers took a 3-1 lead in the third on Matt Kemp’s single that increased his career high RBIs total to 111 and Juan Rivera’s fielder’s choice groundout. Rod Barajas tied the game at 1 in the second when his RBI double hit the left-field line.

“This experience is incredibly beneficial, just to get up here and get your feet wet,” Locke said. “It’s definitely a good feeling, getting ready to come back into spring training again knowing that you had that experience the year before. Now it‘s about consistency.”

Hiroki Kuroda set a career high with his 12th victory.