• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

LaRoche, Doumit power Pirates past Dodgers

Sep 18, 2008 - 4:41 AM By Chris Adamski PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

PITTSBURGH (Ticker) -- The Los Angeles Dodgers have had one of the best pitching staffs in baseball over the past three weeks, but Adam LaRoche, Ryan Doumit and the Pittsburgh Pirates did not seem all that impressed on Wednesday.

LaRoche homered twice and drove in five runs and Doumit sparked an eight-run, seventh inning with a two-run homer as the Pirates rolled to a 15-8 rout of the Dodgers.

After having allowed only 12 runs over their previous seven games and not permitting more than four runs in any contest during a stretch in which they won 14 of 16, the Dodgers saw their pitching staff get torched by the Pirates, who won for only the fourth time in 12 games.

"Hopefully, this will give us something to build off so we can finish off these last couple weeks with some wins," LaRoche said.

All eight of Pittsburgh's starting position players had at least one hit, and all but Brian Bixler scored at least one run. It was a season-high scoring output for the Pirates and the most runs allowed in a game by the Dodgers this season.

"It was a good game all-around," Pittsburgh manager John Russell said. "We had some nice defensive plays and came up with some big hits with two outs."

LaRoche hit a solo shot to lead off the fourth, but his big blast came in the fifth.

Dodgers starter Chad Billingsley struck out the inning's first two batters before allowing singles by Freddy Sanchez and Nate McLouth and walking Doumit.

LaRoche followed by taking a knee-high 0-1 fastball to straightaway center field for the third grand slam of his career and first with Pittsburgh. The blast also helped him match his single-game career high in RBI.

"I had been throwing well. I just wish (this lone bad start) wasn't right now with it being September and being in a playoff race," Billingsley said. "It happens, but we'll have to come back tomorrow and forget this."

After falling behind, 7-4, Los Angeles clawed back with two runs in the sixth and one in the seventh. Russell Martin delivered an RBI single and Andre Ethier lifted a sacrifice fly in the sixth before John Grabow (6-3) yielded an unearned run a frame later.

"It looked good at that point in time," Dodgers manager Joe Torre said. "We just couldn't get to the eighth inning. That's what it came down to."

But the Pirates struck back, posting the majority of their offense in the seventh when they broke open a 7-7 game by scoring eight runs - all with two outs - off Scott Elbert (0-1) and Jason Johnson.

Nine consecutive batters reached, including Doumit, who belted his 14th homer of the season.

"I think our offense showed flashes of what we're capable of doing tonight," Doumit said. "It was a fun night. ? Games like this against a team like that this late in the season, especially after the type of season we've had, are real fun."

Matt Kemp had four hits while Martin and Pablo Ozuna each added three for Los Angeles (79-73), which saw its lead over the Diamondbacks (75-76) in the National League West shrink to 3 1/2 games as Arizona downed the San Francisco Giants, 7-6, in a late game.

"The last two games we played against these guys, they put it to us pretty good," said Pirates starter Zach Duke, who allowed five runs on 11 hits in five-plus innings. "Just to come out and respond like this is a very good thing."