The Dodgers split their series with the Dbacks to stay where they were four days ago in the standings…one game behind Arizona. Manny had a 4 for 5 game and is batting .615 with 5 RBI in his first three games with the Dodgers.
The Dodgers took an early 2-0 lead in the first when Manny singled in Matt Kemp, who was 3 for 5 in the game. James Loney then drove in Russell Martin with his RBI-single. The Dbacks tied it in the second but the Dodgers regained the lead in the bottom half with three runs, including an RBI-double by Manny to score Martin. Manny added a solo homerun in the fifth before the Dodgers added one in the seventh and a pair in the eighth. The 2-3-4 combo of Kemp, Martin, and Manny tallied 8 of the Dodgers’ 16 hits.
Jason Johnson made the start but struggled and didn’t factor into the decision. He gave up a pair of runs in the second to allow the Dbacks to tie it, but his offense backed him up and put the Dodgers ahead in the bottom half. He was lifted in the fifth after giving up a solo homerun to Stephen Drew. Brian Falkenborg finished the fifth and Cory Wade pitched 1 2/3 to get the win. Hong-Chih Kuo and Ramon Troncoso also saw work out of the bullpen. Johnson was a decent fill-in in the rotation for the time being, but he will likely be moved back to the bullpen to make way for Brad Penny, who will return to the team Monday for a bullpen session before his scheduled start on Friday against the Giants.
