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Ethier caps walk-off win over Brewers

Aug 18, 2008 - 12:26 AM LOS ANGELES (Ticker) -- The Los Angeles Dodgers were affected by their bullpen's late-inning blunders, but luckily for them, Andre Ethier had more walk-off tricks up his sleeve.

Ethier blasted a game-winning, two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth inning - his second in six games - to give the Dodgers a thrilling 7-5 triumph over the Milwaukee Brewers on Sunday in the rubber match of a three-game set.

"It's a great feeling after they tied the game up in the last inning," Ethier said. "Our offense is going good right now for us and (we) hope to keep it going. We never want to give up any lead late in the game and it was good to see that we just turned the page and came up ready to hit.

"I've been feeling more comfortable in the box right now and just looking for pitches that I can handle. I'm just happy that we pulled out the win today."

Carlos Villanueva (4-6) served up Ethier's 15th homer of the season and the Brewers dropped their third game in the last four.

"It was a great win for us after giving up the lead in the ninth, and being able to come up to hit after the let down and pull out the win," Los Angeles manager Joe Torre said.

Ethier is hitting .357 since Manny Ramirez made his Dodgers debut on August 1. He had a .274 average before that.

After starter Clayton Kershaw tossed another six effective innings and Jason Johnson worked 2 1/3 frames, Chan Ho Park came on for the ninth staked to a comfortable 5-1 advantage. However, Ray Durham laced a two-run single and Ryan Braun lifted a game-tying, two-run homer with two outs.

"Obviously this wasn't the way we wanted the game to turn out, but we fought our way back into the game and tied it up," Braun said. "I just got a pitch out over the plate and got enough on it for the home run. We just have to put this game behind us and be ready to come out and play hard (Monday)."

Ethier, who also belted a solo shot in the fifth, allowed the Dodgers (64-60) to win for the sixth time in seven games while keeping pace with the Arizona Diamondbacks (64-60) in the tight National League West Division race.

After Park was lifted, Joe Beimel (4-0) came on to get the final out in the near-dooming frame to notch the victory.

Ramirez hit a two-run homer in the first and laced an RBI single in the seventh to give Los Angeles a 5-1 lead.

"There is nothing about Manny that surprises me anymore because he's a great hitter," Torre said. "He changes the whole outlook of our lineup, which makes it tough on other teams."

Matt Kemp led the game off with a homer prior to Ramirez's shot, marking the first time the Dodgers connected on two homers in an inning since May 29.

Mike Cameron hit a solo homer in the fourth, Kershaw's only blemish. The 20-year-old rookie lefthander is 2-0 with a 1.45 ERA in his last five outings and seems to be on the cusp of blossoming into a legitimate starter as the Dodgers embark on the crucial stretch run.

"I felt great today," Kershaw said. "My command of my pitches today was working for me and I was just trying to throw early strikes to their guys.

"I knew I had to be aggressive against that good lineup and just try to keep them from having a big inning."

Brewers second baseman Rickie Weeks left in the sixth inning with a sprained left thumb and was replaced by Durham.

"This was a good game, but it didn't work out the way we wanted it to," Milwaukee manager Ned Yost said. "We never gave up and managed to come back to tie the game against a good team."