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Ramirez homers twice as Dodgers snap slide

Aug 31, 2008 - 5:18 AM PHOENIX (Ticker) -- Manny Ramirez was brought in to get the Los Angeles Dodgers closer to the playoffs. For one night, he did just that.

Ramirez posted his first multi-homer game as a member of the Dodgers and Chad Billingsley pitched seven strong innings en route to a 6-2 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Saturday.

Ramirez finished 4-for-5 with three runs scored and a pair of solo homers for the Dodgers (66-70), who snapped an eight-game losing streak and moved within 3 1/2 games of the Diamondbacks (69-66) in the National League West.

"He's pretty remarkable, but again, I've watched this for a number of years," Los Angeles manager Joe Torre said of Ramirez. "He's one of the best righthanded hitters that's ever played the game in my lifetime."

It was the second multi-homer game of the season and 51st career for Ramirez, who also recorded four hits in Friday's game and is 8-for-9 in the series. The All-Star slugger, who was acquired at the trade deadline from the Boston Red Sox, also reached 500 career doubles Saturday with a two-base hit in the fifth.

"He doesn't give any at-bat away," Torre said. "He just keeps going after it. It doesn't matter what the score is, what the situation is. These young kids could learn a lot from watching him."

Billingsley (13-10) was charged with two runs and nine hits in seven-plus innings while striking out six and walking two. The 24-year-old righthander has allowed three runs or less in each of his last 10 starts.

"In the first inning, I was struggling a little bit, then I was able to get into a good rhythm, good tempo, I was able to get in a groove," Billingsley said.

Los Angeles jumped on top on Ramirez's first homer in the third and took a 3-1 lead in the fourth when Angel Berroa plated Matt Kemp with an infield single. Arizona shortstop Stephen Drew's throwing error on the play allowed Casey Blake to score from second.

Kemp added a two-run homer in the fifth and Ramirez homered again in the seventh for Los Angeles, which also ended an 11-game road losing streak.

"There's a sense of urgency, no question," Torre said. "When you get late in the season you want to go out there and win every game. Then you lose eight in a row, you have a lot of work to do just to make up for it. There's certainly time left, and we know we're better than we have been the past eight days."

Dan Haren (14-7) suffered the loss for the Diamondbacks, allowing five runs and 10 hits in six innings while striking out five and walking none.

"Even though I'm not walking guys, my command just isn't there," Haren said. "I've been throwing plenty of strikes, but the strikes aren't just as quality as they have been in the past. I'm battling through a little bit, some funk with my mechanics, just don't feel exactly right out there. The arm feels great, but there's something wrong and I wasn't able to correct it today."

Chris Young had three hits and drove in both runs for Arizona, which lost for the fifth time in six games.