The Dodgers hit a season high tying six doubles to back Hiroki Kuroda's seven-inning effort, giving the Dodgers their second straight win over Milwaukee, a 5-4 affair. The Dodgers didn't have Hong-Chih Kuo available tonight, so after Jonathan Broxton pitched the eighth inning, Joe Torre deployed three different relievers to get one out each in the ninth to nail down the victory:
Ronald Belisario retired Ryan Braun, southpaw George Sherrill got Prince Fielder, and Octavio Dotel induced a flyout by Casey McGehee to pick up his first save as a Dodger.
Kuroda gave up four runs in his seven innings, but ended his night strong, striking out the side in a perfect seventh inning. On the night, Kuroda didn't walk a batter, and struck out six.
Manny Ramirez collected two doubles and two walks on the night, and Ryan Theriot chipped in with two doubles as well. Casey Blake and James Loney also had doubles, and a single too. Andre Ethier was too cool for the doubles brigade, instead hitting his extra-base hit over the right field wall in the third inning to give the Dodgers a 1-0 lead.
The Dodgers had six doubles one other time this season, on May 11, a 13-3 win in Arizona.
This was the Dodgers' first back-to-back road wins since July 3-4 in Arizona.
Carlos Monasterios goes for the sweep tomorrow, a day game, against Yovanni Gallardo.
WP - Hiroki Kuroda (9-11): 7 IP, 7 hits, 4 runs, 6 strikeouts
LP - Randy Rolf (10-10): 5 IP, 7 hits, 4 runs, 3 walks, 4 strikeouts
Sv - Octavio Dotel (22): 1 batter, 1 out
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Here is a three-minute excerpt from my guest appearance with Jeff Rickard and Steve Phillips on the Sirius XM Fantasy Baseball show.