There's not many times you will see the following statement, so here goes: The Dodgers had four home runs on four hits.
Maybe even the suspended Don Mattingly broke out a smile or two watching that.
Hanley Ramirez hit two of them, and James Loney and Luis Cruz added the other two as the Dodgers rolled over the Braves, 6-2. The Giants narrowly held on to beat the Padres, so the Dodgers still find themselves behind by a 1/2 game in the NL West.
The Braves started this game on top. Michael Bourne led off with a walk against Aaron Harang. An RBI double came next from Martin Prado, and the Dodgers were already in a quick hole. It could have been worse, but Harang struck out David Ross to strand the bases loaded.
The second saw the rarest of all rarities - three straight homers from the Dodgers. With one out, Ramirez took Ben Sheets deep for his 17th of the season, tying the game at one. Loney followed that up with his fourth tater, and Cruz made it back-to-back-to-back to put the Dodgers up 3-1.
Fast forward to the sixth, and the Dodgers played long ball again. It all started with a two-out walk to Matt Kemp. As you know, that's usually a recipe for disaster, and the Dodgers took advantage of it. Kemp stole second and Andre Ethier walked. Ramirez hit his 18th of the season with a three-run shot to left, and the Dodgers were in full control at 6-1.
Harang got into the seventh by only allowing one run, but did walk too many with five. Randy Choate got out of a little bit of trouble by striking out Jayson Heyward with one on to end the inning.
Javy Guerra had a chance to impress by starting the eighth... and then proceeded to do anything but that. He immediately walked Chipper Jones, got Freddy Freeman to fly out, but walked Dan Uggla as well. Not exactly the smartest thing to do late in a game with a big lead.
Out went Guerra and in came Shawn Tolleson, who got Ross to flyout for two down. And then Paul Janish also walked to load the bases. Kenley Jansen had to come in to strikeout Juan Francisco to end the inning. I'll bet Jansen didn't think there's any way he'd enter a five-run game in the eighth, but I guess it's a good thing he was ready.
Jansen stayed on in the ninth and gave up a solo homer to Prado, but otherwise finished out the non-save situation with ease.
The box score was definitely an odd one, as the Dodgers might be the last team you would guess to have all of their hits be homers. All three guys, though, have been swinging hot bats as of late. Ramirez is now hitting .330 in 23 games with the Dodgers, showing why he was one of the top players in the game not too long ago. Loney has hit in five straight, and homered in two of his last three. Cruz continues to get big hits by hitting .325 this month.
Add it all up, and it's great to see the Dodgers get production up and down their lineup. Even though they had four home runs in this game, you know that's not exactly the norm, so they need to rely on everybody. A healthy Kemp certainly helps judging by another stolen base, but with a comfortable Ramirez and Shane Victorino, along with guys like Cruz hitting towards the bottom, they looked locked in right now.
The pitching played with fire all night long with eight walks, but got the Braves to leave 11 on base. Harang improved to 9-7 with a 3.65 ERA, but the walks are something that needs to improve. Guerra did nothing to help his cause by failing to put the ball over the plate. How far has he fallen this season? From closer to not even getting out of an inning with a big lead. Not good.
What is good is this roadtrip, as the Dodgers have won six of nine. There would be no better way to finish this off than with a win on Sunday. Donny Baseball will sit out his last game, so Trey Hillman gets a chance to go 2-for-2. Chad Billingsley will look for his 10th win.
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