Recap: Los Angeles vs. Philadelphia
Sports Network | August 13, 2008
Los Angeles, CA (Sports Network) - Nomar Garciaparra smoked a line-drive, solo home run in the bottom of the ninth inning to give the Los Angeles Dodgers a dramatic 7-6, come-from-behind victory over the Philadelphia Phillies.
The Dodgers trailed by five runs after two innings but battled back to tie it in the eighth. With one out in their last at-bat, Garciaparra, playing in his second game since being activated from his third stint on the disabled list this season, stepped in against Clay Condrey. He connected on a 2-1 offering that reached the bullpen beyond the left field wall in a hurry, giving LA its second straight ninth-inning win against the Phils.
On Tuesday, Andre Ethier's looping single allowed Russell Martin to score in the ninth for a 4-3 win.
Wednesday, Manny Ramirez hit a two-run homer, while Ethier was 2-for-5 with a solo shot for the Dodgers, who have won the first three of this four-game set to pull even with the Arizona Diamondbacks atop the NL West. Jeff Kent was 4- for-5 with a pair of RBI for the victors.
Garciaparra's blast made a winner of Jonathan Broxton (3-3), who worked a scoreless ninth. Starter Brad Penny was touched for six runs on six hits and a pair of walks in only three innings of work in his second start since a nearly two-month stint on the DL.
Ryan Howard, Greg Dobbs and Jayson Werth each had a two-run home run in the loss, but the Philadelphia offense had just one hit after the third inning. Condrey (3-3) took the loss, while starter Joe Blanton went five innings and allowed four runs on nine hits and three walks in addition to six strikeouts.
The Phillies have lost five of seven to fall back into a tie with the New York Mets for the top spot in the NL East.
The visitors smoked a pair of two-out, two-run homers to jump in front in their first at-bat. Penny hit Chase Utley with a fastball before Howard went to left-center for his 33rd home run of the season. Pat Burrell followed with a walk and Dobbs went deep to right for a 4-0 advantage.
Blanton wasn't sharp out of the gate, loading the bases before walking James Loney to force in a run. But the right-hander kept the damage to a minimum by striking out Casey Blake and getting Garciaparra to fly out.
Werth, who played in LA before coming to Philly last season, logged another homer in the second, plating Carlos Ruiz with the blast.
In the home third, Ramirez kept with the game's two-run homer trend by taking Blanton's 1-2 offering the other way and over the right-center field wall for his fifth round-tripper in Dodger blue, making it a 6-3 game.
Ethier's one-out, solo shot made it a two-run game an inning later, and Chan Ho Park came in from the bullpen to maintain the difference by striking out Burrell with the bases loaded in the sixth.
After Phillies reliever Ryan Madson held the two-run lead through the sixth and seventh frames, Chad Durbin allowed the first two hitters in the home eighth to get on base before a fly out and ground out put both runners in scoring position. Kent then strolled to the plate and brought in the tying runs with a double to left.
Penny won his first start after being activated from the DL, but had been 0-7 in his previous eight starts...Philadelphia is 32-29 away from Citizens Bank Park this season...The Phils left nine runners on base, while LA stranded 11...The Dodgers go for the four-game sweep with Hiroki Kuroda (6-8) squaring off against the Phillies' Brett Myers (5-9).
