A day after suffering a disappointing loss by blowing a late three-run lead, the Dodgers went to work right away against the Cubs. Eight batters and four hits later, the lead was 5-0, and the Dodgers would cruise to a win from there, 7-3. The Dodgers took two of three in Chicago, and have won six of their last eight.
Carlos Zambrano was given the Sunday afternoon start for the Cubs, and he was coming off a great outing in which he shut down the Padres for eight innings with 10 strikeouts. OK, so I can think of high school pitchers who can blank the Padres, but still, that was a great start. The Dodgers, however, didn't seem to care.
Aaron Miles started the game with a triple in a sign of things to come. Casey Blake was then beaned. What came next was five straight batters in which an RBI was hit. Andre Ethier extended his hitting streak to 21 games with an RBI single and 1-0 lead. Matt Kemp also singled in a run, and Jerry Sands collected an RBI double. A groundout by James Loney and sac-fly by Rod Barajas also pushed runs across the board, and it was already 5-0.
Hiroki Kuroda was handed a big lead on a silver platter, but was shaky himself to start the game. Thankfully, not nearly as bad as Zambrano was. Kosuke Fukudome led off with a double, and Darwin Barney's single put two on. Fukudome came in to score on an error by Jamey Carroll to make it 5-1. After Aramis Ramirez struck out, Carlos Pena hit an RBI single to make it 5-2.
Kuroda was then able to settle down by striking out Marlon Byrd, and following a wild pitch to put both runners in scoring position, struck out Alfonso Soriano as well to end the inning.
There wasn't much scoring going on after that, which was obviously fine with the Dodgers. In the third, Kemp doubled with an out. Jerry Sands struck out for two down, but Loney picked him up with an RBI single, and it was 6-2.
The final run of the day for the Dodgers came in the sixth. With Zambrano out and John Grabow in, Barajas singled with one out. With two outs, Kuroda reached on an error by Starlin Castro, and it would come back to haunt the Cubs, as Miles collected an RBI single to go up 7-2.
In the seventh, the last threat of the day for the Cubs saw them get one run, but nothing more. Kuroda got a couple of outs, but was chased by a double from Geovany Soto and singles by Fukudome and Barney. Mike MacDougal got Castro grounding out to end the inning.
Blake Hawkworth and Jonathan Broxton worked the last two innings, respectively, each allowing only one baserunner.
The offense has definitely awaken after so many tough games to start the season. Sunday marked the fifth straight game in which they've put up five runs or more. Compare that to the 18 games to start the season in which they pulled this off only four times, and you see what I mean. Kemp and Ethier have been fantastic, but plenty of credit goes to guys like Blake, Carroll, Miles, and Uribe (who sat out again today). Without their production at different parts of the lineup, no matter how good the big two have done, the Dodgers still wouldn't have won much.
Kuroda shook off some early difficulties to get the win with 6 2/3 innings pitched, nine hits, three runs (two earned), no walks, and seven strikeouts. Throw out Lilly's bad start yesterday, and the starting rotation has been awesome for about a week now. Everyone from Kershaw down through Garland has stepped up big time.
So if you put the two together - production from hitters not named Ethier or Kemp along with great starting pitching - it's no wonder why the Dodgers have played on a whole different level lately. The key will be the hitting. We know the rotation will continue to get the job done, now the hitters need to keep backing them up.
The roadtrip ends up in Florida for three with the Marlins before a much-deserved day off on Thursday. John Garland has two starts this year - one horrible, one fantastic. Let's hope for the latter to show up again when he takes on Ricky Nolasco on Monday.
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