Red-hot Ethier carries Dodgers

Andre Ethier had such a miserable June, Andruw Jones' return was starting to be a good thing. I'm talking .195 AVG awful. Now that the calendar has turned to July, his bat is starting to heat up.

A 3-4 day at the plate raised his average from .271 to start the month to .287 now, and the Dodgers took 2 of 3 from the San Francisco Giants by winning today's game, 5-3. The play of Ethier and James Loney made sure the Dodgers would stay less than a game behind division-leading Arizona.

After looking like crap yesterday against Barry Zito, the Dodgers got on the board right away against Matt Cain. Ethier singled with 1 down, and Loney doubled him in an out later for a 1-0 lead, the 6th time in 7 games the Dodgers have scored in the 1st inning. Kind of amazing considering Furcal's not there (but easier to do when Juan Pierre isn't grounding out to start every game).

Eric Stults was a little shaky to start, as he gave up an RBI groundout to Bengie Molina to even the score at 1 in the bottom of the inning. He did get out of the inning with 2 on, though. He finished at 4 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K. Definitely not his sharpest outing, but he kept the Dodgers on the winning side.

2 more runs were scored in the 3rd when Matt Kemp singled home Angel Berroa and Ethier hit a sac-fly to score Eric Stults. Believe it or not, Berroa actually hit a single to raise his average to a sizzling .197. Whew, talk about production! Stults luckily got an infield single, and it's good that both men came around to score with nobody out. That's the kind of production the Dodgers have not gotten nearly enough in earlier games. Maybe it's turning around, who knows.

Rich Aurilla homered to make it 3-2 Dodgers, but Loney hit a big double to score both Ethier and Kemp in the 5th for a 5-2 lead. I'm glad that people other than Russell Martin and Jeff Kent can drive in runs. The youth came through today.

The 9th was a little interesting as the Giants put the 1st 2 men on against Takashi Saito. But, he got 3 straight outs, with a sac-fly RBI wedged in between, for his 16th save. If the Giants had any sort of threats in their order, it could have been much more nerve-wracking, but they don't. Good for the Dodgers I guess.

The win makes it 3 straight series wins (Angels, Astros, and Giants) and 7 of the last 10. It's not always pretty, but taking that many games against anyone is a great step. At 2 games under .500, they should shoot for at least an even record once the All-Star break hits. They've got 7 games against the Braves and Marlins coming up at home to keep playing solid ball. Let's do it.