Dodgers rediscover their inner power source, drive three home runs in 7-3 victory over Marlins
This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.
Eight hits. Not exactly a deluge of offense. Eight hits can be a tough way to win a game.
Unless, of course, three of them stretched well beyond the outfield wall. Three that make for that slow trot around the bases.
A team can win with eight hits like that, particularly if its own pitcher is on, as Vicente Padilla was for most of Tuesday in the Dodgers’ 7-3 victory over the Marlins.
With Padilla throwing his second consecutive fine start and Matt Kemp, Casey Blake and Andre Ethier all going deep, the Dodgers won for the sixth time in their last eight games to pull within three games of the Padres in the National League West.
Understand, the long ball isn’t exactly the Dodgers’ forte.
They rank only 12th in the league in home runs. And Tuesday marked only the fourth time all season they’ve collected at least three home runs in a single game.
Yet it was all the rage on a cool summer evening at Chavez Ravine.
The Dodgers broke the game open with a four-run second inning when shortstop Rafael Furcal continued his hot hitting by driving in two with a single to center.
Kemp started the power display by drilling his team-high 16th home run of the season halfway up the seats in the left-field pavilion. Since his return from being benched, in seven games Kemp is 11-for-30 with three home runs and nine RBIs.
By driving in Furcal, the shortstop extended his streak of scoring at least one run in 12 consecutive games, a Los Angeles Dodgers record. He tied the Brooklyn Dodgers Gil Hodges’ 12-game streak in 1953.
The Dodgers padded their lead with solo home runs from Blake in the third and Ethier in the fifth. Furcal added his third RBI of the night -- which also featured a season-high five L.A. stolen bases -- with a single in the eighth.
Meanwhile, Padilla (3-2) was moving through the Marlins with relative ease. At least until the seventh.
Up until that point, Padilla was following up his seven-inning, three-hit performance in his last start, against the Giants, with an equally impressive effort.
Padilla shut the Marlins out on four hits through six innings, before a Cody Ross single and rookie Mike Stanton’s two-out home run put Florida on the board.
Padilla exited the game at that point, having struck out a season-high nine and without having issued a walk.
In his four games since returning from the disabled list on June 19, Padilla is 2-1 with a 3.12 ERA.
After the Marlins scored once in the ninth, Jonathan Broxton came on to finish the Marlins and earn his 18th save.
-- Steve Dilbeck