Joe Beimel got the win, he's 5-1. Heath Bell took the loss, he's 6-6.Hiroki Kuroda had a quality start. He went six innings, giving up two runs on nine hits and two walks while striking out four. The Dodger bullpen pitched three scoreless innings in relief, giving up only two walks over that span. Joe Beimel pitched one of those innings to put him in position to get the win. Jonathan Broxton pitched a scoreless 9th to close out the game, though with a four run lead, he couldn't collect a save.
The Dodgers managed only one run through the seven first innings, coming on a Manny Ramírez solo homerun in the 6th. They then managed to score five runs in the last two innings.
Andre Ethier went 2-4 with a walk, a double, a triple, four RBIs, and a run scored. Russell Martin went 1-3 with a double, two walks, and two runs scored. Manny went 1-3 with a homerun, a walk, a sac-fly, two RBIs, and a run scored.The San Francisco Giants beat the Arizona Diamondbacks for the second game in a row (they fall back to 71-73), so with the win the Dodgers move to 2.5 games ahead of the Diamondbacks in the NL West race. The Dodgers will try to win the rubber match of the series tomorrow at 7:05 L.A. time.
Also: With the win, the Dodgers move back to three game over .500 (74-71)... With the Diamondback loss and the Dodger win, the Dodger Magic Number is now reduced to 16 games... Manny Ramírez's homerun was the 522nd of his career, moving him into 17th place on the All-Time list.
Opinion: What a two man wrecking crew Manny Ramírez and Andre Ethier have become: 18 RBIs combined for them over the last five games (seven for Ramírez, 11 for Ethier). Not that I would want to mess up the chemistry of a team that's gone nine for it's last 10, but I can't help but wonder if Ethier and Ramírez might be better served in the three and four spots, allowing another possible runner to get on before those two. In any case, we got the win, and that's the most important thing. Now let's win tomorrow's rubber match and the series. Colorado won't be easy this weekend, so any momentum we can get going into the series would be very helpful.
