What a game by Cody Ross today. He filled in to give J.D. Drew a day off, and he hits two homeruns and drives in seven. It made for a nice finish to the series against Pittsburgh.
I was hoping for a little more then just a 2-2 split in this series, but the pitching just wasn’t there. On Monday, the Dodgers jumped all over Zach Duke. They scored three in the first, two in the second and two more in the fifth to make it 7-0. The Pirates scored a few early, and ironically even outhit the Dodgers 14-11. 12 of the 14 Pirate hits were singles where as the Dodgers had five extra base hits (a double, two triples and two homeruns). Odalis Perez bounced back from a rough first start and gave up only a single run on six hits and two walks with three strikeouts. Repko homered and drove in four runs while Olmedo Saenz went three for four with a homerun, two RBIs and two runs.
Tuesday was the tough loss. The Dodgers jumped out to a 5-2 lead but the Pirates slowly crept back into the game and took the lead with two runs in the sixth. Both teams got good bullpen work from then on and neither team scored in the final three innings. Bill Mueller continued his tear, going four for four with two homeruns and three RBIs. Rickey Ledee also went yard and drove in two runs. Jae Seo was roughed up in his first start but it was Lance Carter who gave up the go ahead run in the sixth inning. Seo gave up five runs on seven hits in five innings with four strikeouts. Danys Baez pitched his fourth inning without giving up a run.
On Wednesday, the Dodgers jumped out to another nice lead (3-0 in the fourth) but the Pirates busted the game open in the fifth with four runs. The Dodgers tied it in the sixth inning but the Pirates got two runs in both the seventh and eighth innings to put the game out of reach. Bill Mueller had two more hits and Jose Cruz, Jr. hit his first homerun of the season. Bret Tomko and Hong-Chih Kuo were both hit pretty hard, and it was Kuo that took the loss.
The Dodgers got back on track this afternoon with a blow out win. Ross had the monster game but Saenz also had some nice numbers. He went three for four with a homerun, four RBIs and three runs. Cruz, Kent, Mueller and Ross all scored two runs.
The Dodgers come home tomorrow to play the Giants, who have been rained out two straight times and have a double header today. Hopefully we’ll see some high scoring games that tax the pen. This is a division rival, so it’s time to get serious.
