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Ramirez, Blake homer as Dodgers down Diamondbacks

Aug 3, 2008 - 6:28 AM By Jonathan Raber PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

LOS ANGELES (Ticker) -- The Los Angeles Dodgers have used the past two weeks to address their offensive concerns. On Saturday, the new additions made their presence felt.

Manny Ramirez and Casey Blake each hit their first homers since joining Los Angeles as the Dodgers posted a 4-2 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks.

With a runner on, Ramirez - acquired in Thursday's last-minute, three-way deal with the Boston Red Sox and Pittsburgh Pirates - hammered a first-pitch fastball from Arizona starter Yusmeiro Petit (1-2) into the left-field bleachers to give the Dodgers a 2-0 first-inning lead.

"In that situation, I was just trying to see the ball," Ramirez said. "I had good timing and put a good part of the bat on it."

The blast, which traveled an estimated 428 feet, was the 511th of Ramirez's career, tying him with Mel Ott for 22nd on the all-time list. It also brought the sell-out crowd of 54,544 to its feet for a curtain call, of which Ramirez happily obliged.

"It's had a great effect on the ball club," Dodgers manager Joe Torre said of Ramirez's addition. "The players, they get excited because Manny's got that kind of personality and, of course, that kind of ability. Hopefully, we can build on that."

"I like that (the fans) have my back and I have their back," said Ramirez, who earlier in the day declared his desire to finish his career as a Dodger. "I'm (going to) go play hard and see what happens."

After going 2-for-4 in his Dodgers debut on Friday, Ramirez repeated the feat .

"We're all pretty psyched," Blake said. "(Ramirez) is unbelievable, but to see him have an impact as quick as he has is truly amazing."

Blake, who arrived on July 26 via a trade with the Cleveland Indians, pushed the advantage to 3-0 in the second by hitting a 2-1 pitch to into the stands in left .

"It was big," Blake said. "It's not like it was really weighing on my mind, but you ask anybody - you get that first home run out of the way and you start relaxing a little more."

The home runs by the new acquisitions were the first in five games for Los Angeles, which is tied for second last in the majors with 76.

Ramirez added a single in the sixth and came around to score on Jeff Kent's hit past the shortstop for a 4-1 lead.

The offensive fireworks supplied more than enough support for starter Hiroki Kuroda (6-8), who picked up his first win in five starts, yielding one run and four hits with six strikeouts over 7 1/3 innings.

"Knowing where we were in the series - losing the first two games - this is a big game for him physiologically," Torre said. "I think he learned some things about himself."

The righthander entered having allowed 20 runs in four previous outings.

"After three bad outings, I felt sorry, I was a burden on the team," said Kuroda, who credited catcher Russell Martin with doing extensive research on Diamondback hitters. "I wanted to do whatever possible to contribute to this team."

Kuroda was replaced by Hong-Chi Kuo with one out in the eighth after two runners reached via an error and a single. The lefthander retired the next hitter to end the threat.

Kuo did his best to keep the Dodgers in suspense though, allowing a run-scoring single to Alex Romero to bring the tying run up to the plate with two outs in the ninth.

However, Chan Ho Park earned his second career save by forcing Chris Young to hit into a fielder's choice groundout.