Raffy's big fly boosts the Dodgers

The key to the Dodgers' winning: Rafael Furcal.

Raffy proved that once again on Thursday night, as his two-run homer in the seventh gave the Dodgers the lead and eventual win, 3-2. All the other NL West teams won as well, so the Padres still own a three game lead.

Besides Raffy's heroics, it was Clayton Kershaw who put on quite the show. He was simply awesome, pitching eight innings for seven hits, two runs, no walks, and 12 strikeouts. That's a season high for him, and one off his career high. He earned a well-deserved ninth win.

The Dodgers got on the board in the first. Raffy laced a double in the leadoff spot. Matt Kemp walked, but Andre Ethier grounded into a double play. With Raffy on third, James Loney came through with an RBI single and 1-0 lead.

One swing by Alfonso Soriano in the second quickly changed the game. He absolutely crushed one deep to left for his 15th of the season. He guessed fastball, and he guessed right.

In the fourth, the Cubs took their only lead of the game with another run. Aramis Ramirez has been horrible this year, but not tonight as he blooped a double into right with one out. Geovany Soto hit an RBI single to center, and it was 2-1.

Randy Wells pitched very well for most of the game, but made one crucial mistake in the seventh. Russell Martin singled leading off. After Blake DeWitt flied out to center, Kershaw laid down a great sacrifice to get Martin to second.

At this point, Raffy was 2-for-2 with a hit by pitch. His perfect night would continue, as he lined one just inside the foul pole in right for a two-run shot, his sixth of the season. It was another clutch hit from a guy that ignites the rest of the team.

Kershaw struck out two more to end the eighth. Jonathan Broxton came on and got Marlon Byrd swinging to start the ninth. As Byrd was muttering about it going back to the dugout, he was ejected by the first base umpire. Maybe something was said that I'm not aware of, but it seemed like a questionable trigger.

Derek Lee then flew out to Ethier. With two strikes on Ramirez, he singled into left to keep the game going. Kosuke Fukudome pinch-hit and flew out to left to end the game. Broxton is now 18-20 in save opportunities.

Take Raffy away from this game, and the Dodgers obviously don't win. The team only had six hits all night, and he had half of them. He's now hitting .339 with a .386 OBP.

It's pretty simple - when Raffy's hitting, the Dodgers are winning.

Of course, Kershaw had a say in this win as well. He was at 97 pitches when he exited after eight innings, and probably would have been given a chance to finish it off had it not been a one-run game. He's inching closer and closer to getting that complete game that's eluded him thus far. It'll come soon.

There's three games left with the Cubs before the All-Star break. Next up is Chad Billingsley against Ted Lilly. Bills hasn't won since the end of May, but he's pitched pretty well in a few of those starts.