The league's top offense flexed their collective muscle on Wednesday night, as they absolutely unloaded on some porous Reds' pitching in a 14-8 win. The win gets the Dodgers back to .500 at 7-7.
The Dodgers were able to score at least a run in every inning except the fourth. It all started in the first when Matt Kemp took a walk with one down. After Andre Ethier grounded out to get Kemp to second, Manny Ramirez scored him with an RBI single, and it was 1-0.
Hiroki Kuroda, however, could not hold the lead, as he was victimized by the longball. Joey Votto hit a two-run shot, and Scott Rolen added a solo blast to put the Reds up 3-1. It was only an inning, but it sure looked like a repeat of the previous night when the pitching couldn't hold a lead.
Thankfully, that wasn't the case, as the Dodgers knotted it up in the second. Back-to-back singles by Blake DeWitt and Russell Martin with one down led to a two-run single from Rafael Furcal, tying the game at 3-3.
Ethier put the Dodgers up for good with his fourth homer of the year, a solo shot against Aaron Harang to open the third. A soft RBI single from Manny in the fifth made it 5-3.
The sixth inning is when the Dodgers really put their stamp on this one. With two outs and Martin on second, Raffy continued his hot hitting with an RBI single, part of his 3-for-5 night. Ethier added an RBI single, and James Loney a two-run single, making it 9-4.
More runs were added on for good measure in the seventh, highlighted by an RBI triple from Raffy and a two-run homer from Kemp, his seventh already. RBI singles by Casey Blake and Reed Johnson closed out the scoring.
The hitting was just awesome, as they kept applying pressure all night. It reminded me of a good fastbreak offense, where a team just keeps pushing the ball and finding ways to score. Hey, I'm a Lakers fan, so obviously I'm in a basketball mood this time of year.
The big win wasn't without some negatives, though. Two more errors were committed, and on pretty silly plays. Both Raffy and DeWitt had routine grounders go right through their legs. I mean, they were hit hard, but definitely should've been fielded.
Then there's George Sherrill, who came in the sixth to get one out. Well, it took him three batters to do this, thanks to a walk and two-run single from Brandon Phillips. Granted, Raffy's error unnecessarily kept the inning going, but Sherrill is still lost out there.
Kuroda got the win, albeit with a pretty strange line. He finished with 5 2/3 innings pitched, seven hits, six runs (three earned), two walks, and four strikeouts. The bats made him look really good, but it wasn't one of his better starts. Still, he has a 2.18 ERA and is 2-0, so I'll take it.
It was good to see Ronald Belisario back, as he pitched a scoreless seventh. Jeff Weaver came on to pitch the eighth, but had to exit after getting an out. It looked like his back was giving him fits, so let's hope that it's nothing serious. Carlos Monasterios did a good job of finishing the game without giving up a run.
Thursday will be the rubber game, as these two teams have already scored 40 runs in two games. Yes, this is a National League game, not American League. Vicente Padilla is mercifully coming off a good start, so he'll look to keep it going.
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