Thursday, May 13, 2010

Dodgers back to .500 with sweep

The Dodgers completed a three-game sweep of the Diamondbacks on Wednesday by a score of 6-3. Hiroki Kuroda provided another great start, and three runs in the seventh put the game away for good.

The sweep was the Dodgers' first of the season, and also gave them a 9-3 record again NL West foes. It's also six wins in the last seven games.

After a rough start to the season, business is definitely picking up.

Both teams didn't do much damage through three innings, as Kuroda and Edwin Jackson kept the hitters off balance by allowing two combined baserunners.

Who would be the person to get the bats going? None other than Andre Ether, currently your National League triple crown leader. Matt Kemp singled to start the fourth. Ethier then hit one just out to left for a two-run shot, making it 2-0.

That lead would be short-lived, however. Stephen Drew and Mark Reynolds both singled, bringing up Adam LaRoche with one down. LaRoche would deliver a rocket down the right field line, easily scoring both, and it was 2-2.

Jamey Carroll did a lot of work to get another run on the board in the fifth. He walked to lead off, then stole second with one out. After Russell Martin's lineout to third, Kemp hit an RBI single to shallow left for a 3-2 lead.

The Diamondbacks made a pretty head-scratching move in the seventh which eventually chased Jackson. Carroll walked to start, and Martin singled with one out. Kemp struck out, but Martin stole second for two runners in scoring position.

With two outs, manager A.J. Hinch decided to walk Ethier to face Manny Ramirez. Manny wasted no time in hitting a three-run double to center, breaking the game open at 6-2. It was a tough call, but it's hard to justify giving Manny a chance like that, even with Ethier being red hot. It just wasn't a smart thing to do.

Kuroda made it into the eighth, and was soon lifted after giving up a single and a flyout. Ronald Belisario pitched to one batter and gave up a walk, and Hong-Chih Kuo gave up the last run of the game on a sac-fly to LaRoche.

Jonathan Broxton got the save, but it wasn't exactly flawless. A single by Tony Abreu and walk to Cole Gillespie brought the tying run to the plate. But, Broxton struck out the side, including the last two hitters for his fourth save.

Kuroda had to overcome the scary memory of getting beaned in the head the last time he was in Arizona. He walked the first batter, but quickly recovered. He's now 4-1 with a 2.66 ERA on the year. He's not an ace, but is a great 2-3 starter.

Even if the Diamondbacks really aren't that good, it was still a big three games for the Dodgers. They need wins any way they can get them, and they've done that a lot lately. They're getting healthier, getting much better starting pitching, and getting production up and down the batting order. It's pretty simple, but that's why they've looked much more competitive in recent days.

Thursday is an off day, then a three-game battle against the first place Padres. Who would have thought we'd be saying that before the season? I'm not sure many people could even name more than a handful of Padres, but they've been fantastic so far. Ramon Ortiz gets the spot start against old friend Jon Garland.

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