The return of Manny Ramirez from his 50-game suspension must have provided good vibes for the Dodgers. A five-run first inning was enough for them to defeat the Padres, 6-3.
If there was any indication that Manny's return would give a boost to a stale Dodgers' offense, then Friday night's first inning was it. The lineup looked like the one that was pre-suspension, with Rafael Furcal leading off, Orlando Hudson in the two-hole, and Manny hitting third. After that, it was usually a bit of a toss-up, but it was Andre Ethier cleaning up last night.
To start the game, Raffy singled to left. Hudson grounded out to get Raffy over to second. With a loud reaction of mostly cheers from the crowd (mostly because there were a whole lot of Dodger fans there), Manny worked a walk on a full count.
Ethier hit a grounder that forced Manny at second, but Everth Cabrera threw the ball away, allowing Rafffy to score. Casey Blake followed with a walk. After that, it was consecutive RBIs on singles by James Loney and Russell Martin. A two-run double by Matt Kemp capped the inning at 5-0.
The Dodgers got five runs and four hits in the first inning alone, and then pretty much put it into cruise control after that. Their only other run was in the third. Ethier started with a double, and soon got to third. Martin hit an RBI groundout that made it 6-0.
Hiroki Kuroda was pitching very well into the sixth, with his only run a solo shot by Scott Hairston. His fatigue must have caught up to him in the sixth, as he gave up a walk and single to start the inning. After an out, Adrien Gonzalez (whom Sports Illustrated referred to as "the only reason to watch the Padres"... so true!) doubled in both runs, and that was it for Kuroda.
The resurgent Guillermo Mota came on and immediately got two groundouts, and the inning ended at 6-3. Kuroda got the win, even if his final line wasn't the prettiest: 5 and 1/3 innings, four hits, three runs, two walks, two strikeouts.
Once again, the bullpen more than slammed the door shut. Mota pitched 1 and 2/3 innings of hitless ball, Ramon Troncoso and Brent Leach combined to close out the eighth, and Jonathan Broxton blew away the Padres in the ninth for save #20.
The story of this night will obviously be Manny, even if he was just 0-3 with a walk. I don't care what he was - his presence in the lineup is exactly what the doctor ordered for this struggling offense. Hopefully the rest of the team can just relax and get back to stringing together some hits. Now they can settle into their roles a little better.
Saturday is a FOX game, and Manny is scheduled to be in the lineup (I'm sure the suits at that network had a thing or two to say about that). Randy "No-Decision" Wolf will look to get his fourth win of the season. But more than likely, he'll get 13th no-decision instead.
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