Andre Ethier added to his league leading walk-offs since 2008 with a bomb to center-field off of Chad Durbin to lead the Dodgers to a hard earned 3-2 victory. It was the 2nd walk off in a row for Andre Ethier who has broken out of his May slump with a bang with two home runs today. His first home run was a rocket halfway up the pavilion in the 4th inning. Andre has now hit safely in 10 straight starts, batting .359 over that span. With his two home runs today he has tied Casey Blake with the team lead at nine.
The victory would not have been possible without help from many different players. Hiroki Kuroda pitched six excellent innings and left with the Dodgers winning 1 - 0. He only gave up two hits during his stint and as usual owned the Phillies, and in four career starts against the Phillies he owns a 1.44 ERA. Bellisario came in and gave up both Phillies' runs in a tough luck inning. as he failed to come up a with sharp comebacker, and then Dodger Killer Matt Stairs delivered the two run single to plate the Phillie runs.
The Dodgers could not score against a trio of Phillie pitchers but luckily Charlie Manuel went to Lidge for the close. Down 2-1 Rafael Furcal came off the bench in the bottom of the ninth with the team down 2 - 1. At first he tried his patented running bunt, but with two strikes he was forced to get on base the conventional way. So he corkscrewed his back together and drove a line drive into the right field bleachers that just evaded Jason Werths outstretched glove to tie the game.
From there it was a game for the bullpen. Manuel had all ready used his complete bench and had no one to pinch hit as the game headed for extra innings. The Dodgers with their 13 pitcher staff were not in much better shape. The difference was that the Dodgers still had Broxton and a host of other good relief pitchers to use. The Phillies had shot their wad trying to close out the game and with Madsen having already been spent it was a good bet the Dodgers would win this game. The only real question was how would they win this game.
Broxton did his job in the 10th, and Corey Wade quited the doubters for this game by throwing two shutout innings to give Andre his shot in the bottom of the 12th. Andre connected on the Durbin offering and sent it just over the center field fence, and the Dodgers had another notch in their belt, as they beat the World Champions for the 2nd time by making them walk off the field in disbelief.
The Dodgers are now 5 -1 in extra innings games this year and improved to 12 - 1 in one run games at Dodger stadium. 20 games over .500 now the Dodgers are making a run for one of their best seasons ever. Jonathan Broxton has now struck out 30 hitters and walked only one at home this year. Furcal's pinch hit home run was the first of his career and couldn't have come at a bigger time for the struggling shortstop.
The pitching staff is keeping the NL league leading home run team in check as the Phillies failed to hit a home run for the third straight game. Instead it was the Dodgers playing the Phillie game with three home runs today.
Phillies vs Dodgers boxscore