A few early bombs by the offense, plus some solid pitching by Vicente Padilla, led to a 7-2 Dodger win to open a three-game set in Arizona on Labor Day.
Back-to-back home runs in the second inning by Manny Ramirez opened the scoring, a positive sign since Max Scherzer was so good against the Dodgers last week at Dodger Stadium. Loney's home run was his 10th of the season, all on the road. Wearing the road grays this year, Loney is hitting .306/.384/.472 with 10 home runs, compared to .251/.324/.312 with no homers at home.
Ronnie Belliard, starting his sixth straight game, also had a good day, with a single, double, and a home run, knocking in a pair of runs. Belliard is hitting .370/.393/.667 (10 for 27) since joining the Dodgers.
Vicente Padilla, making his third start as a Dodger, pitched six strong innings for his second win since joining the club. He was helped out by a few double plays, including a pair of baserunning blunders to end the first, when a groundball to shortstop turned into a 6-5-4-3 double play as both Stephen Drew and Justin Upton made outs running the bases. Padilla's only blemish of the day was a long home run given up to Chris Young, a two-run shot in the fifth inning.
Padilla is the 17th Dodger pitcher this season to collect at least two wins, putting the Dodgers one shy of the major league record of 18, shared by four teams, the most recent being the 2007 Rangers.
Manny Ramirez was ejected in the third inning by home plate umpire Doug Eddings after arguing balls and strikes, but Juan Pierre filled in nicely with two hits, two steals, and a run batted in. Those were the first two hits of Pierre's career batting from the fourth spot in the batting order.
In the eighth inning, with a 6-2 lead, George Sherrill walked Stephen Drew, the first walk issued by Sherrill to a lefthander as a Dodger. With two runners on, Jonathan Broxton was brought on to face Justin Upton. Broxton's strikeout of Upton was his 100th on the season, making this the 11th time in Dodger history a reliever has amassed 100 or more strikeouts in a season. Broxton finished the ninth inning to close out the game, collecting his 33rd save on the season. It was the sixth save of more than one inning for Broxton this season.
Today's win was the Dodgers' 10th win against Arizona this season, clinching the season series.
Chad Billingsley faces off with Billy Buckner tomorrow night on KCAL.
WP - Vicente Padilla (2-0): 6 IP, 6 hits, 2 runs, 1 walk, 3 strikeouts
LP - Max Scherzer (9-9): 7 IP, 6 hits, 4 runs, 1 walk, 3 strikeouts
Sv - Jonathan Broxton (33): 1.1 IP, 1 hit, 1 walk, 2 strikeouts