Recap: Los Angeles vs. San Francisco
Sports Network | September 21, 2008
Los Angeles, CA (Sports Network) - Manny Ramirez clubbed two homers and drove in five runs, as the Los Angeles Dodgers crept closer to a division crown with a 10-7 victory over the San Francisco Giants in the middle test of a three-game set from Chavez Ravine.
Matt Kemp added a two-run homer for the Dodgers, whose magic number to clinch the NL West title stands at five. Arizona defeated Colorado, 5-3, earlier Saturday to remain 3 1/2 games back in the standings. Starter Hiroki Kuroda gave up three runs on eight hits in four-plus innings. Takashi Saito (4-3) got the win after he tossed a scoreless seventh.
"Nothing he does surprises anybody," Kemp said of Ramirez. "He's helped us out a lot. I don't know where we would be without him."
Travis Ishikawa and Pablo Sandoval each knocked in two runs for the Giants, who have dropped five of their last six games. Bengie Molina collected three hits and scored a run. Starter Brad Hennessey was tagged for five runs on five hits in three innings of work. Tyler Walker (4-8) took the loss after he allowed two runs in two-thirds of an inning, as the Giants pitching staff issued 11 walks.
"It just killed us," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said of the walks.
The Dodgers scored two runs in the seventh off a charitable bullpen to break a 5-5 tie. Ramirez drew a leadoff walk and James Loney followed with a base hit. Two outs later, Jack Taschner took over on the mound and issued three straight walks to force in a pair of runs. Billy Sadler continued the parade of pitchers and fanned Russell Martin to keep it a two-run deficit.
Los Angeles added three insurance runs in the eighth. Ramirez followed a leadoff walk by Andre Ethier with his second home run of the game. The Dodgers had the bags full later in the inning, and an Angel Berroa groundout gave the home team a five-run lead.
Trailing 10-5, the Giants made it interesting in the ninth against Jonathan Broxton. With a runner on first and two gone, Aaron Rowand lined a single to center and Berroa's throwing error on a routine groundball prolonged the inning and loaded the bases for Sandoval, pinch-hitting for Ivan Ochoa. Sandoval then ripped a ground-rule double, but Broxton fanned Dave Roberts to end the game.
The Giants scratched out a run in the opening frame on a bases-loaded walk to Ishikawa, and tacked on another run in the third. Nate Schierholtz was hit by a pitch to start the inning, advanced to third on a one-out hit from Molina and scored when Blake DeWitt misplayed a ball off the bat of Ishikawa.
Los Angeles, though, responded with a five-spot in the home half to forge ahead, 5-2. Kuroda singled and Martin walked to begin the inning and, after Ethier popped out, Ramirez jumped on a 1-1 offering from Hennessey and hooked it inside the right-field foul pole for his 15th home run in a Dodger uniform. One out later, Casey Blake singled and Kemp homered over the wall in left.
San Francisco came back with three runs in the fifth to tie the game at five. Chan Ho Park replaced Kuroda following a leadoff double by Molina. Ishikawa greeted the veteran hurler with a base hit and consecutive walks to Rowand and Eugenio Velez forced in a run. Joe Beimel then entered from the Los Angeles bullpen and uncorked a wild pitch to score Ishikawa. An RBI groundout by pinch-hitter Scott McClain later in the frame chased home the tying run.
Ramirez recorded his 53rd career multi-homer game...Ramirez has 526 home runs for his career...Kuroda had two hits and struck out five...Both teams stranded 11 runners.
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