Dodgers Stay Perfect At Home With Win

This was the Dodgers team we expected from the start of the season. Questionable starting pitching  —there’s plenty of backup with 13 pitchers on the active roster now — that gets a lot of support from the big bats.

Manny Ramirez homered, doubled and scored to runs, while Matt Kemp made a number of big plays and the Dodgers are now 7-0 at Chavez Ravine beating the Padres 8-5 Thursday night. That’s the best home start for the franchise since 1947, when they were playing in Brooklyn.

The Dodger bats got to work early on Padres starter Josh Geer, scoring one run in the first and three more in the third — on back-to-back home runs by Orlando Hudson and Ramirez.

But in the second inning, Dodger starting James McDonald looked horrible. He threw 36 pitches (only half for strikes) and gave up four walks and a few hits, including one to Geer. McDonald didn’t make it out of the inning, he was relieved by newly-promoted Jeff Weaver with two out. Weaver eventually got Jody Gerut to strike out to end the threat.

The Giants took a 5-3 lead in the top of the seventh inning, but in bottom half of the inning the Dodgers struck back with four singles and a walk to score two runs and even everything up. It was that second run that could have been prevented — Casey Blake moved to third on a single by Hudson but a throw from the outfield to make sure Blake didn’t score was not cut off by the cut-off man, that seem to surprise catcher Nick Hundley who missed the ball. Hundley was supposed to be backed up by pitcher Luke Gregerson, who also seemed shocked. The ball rolled to the backstop and Blake scored.

The Dodgers scored two more in the eighth, with a Kemp double being the big hit.

While the bats were working the Dodgers were going through seven pitchers on the night, in case you wondered why they needed 13 on the roster. Ronald Belisario’s one inning of one-hit ball was well timed as he got the win, while Jonathan Broxton closed it out for his seventh save of the season.

It was the kind of fan pleasing but shaky win the Dodgers have been getting all season. They’ll need to do a little better Friday night if they want to make it 8-0 to start the season at home — Jake Peavey is on the mound for the Padres.