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Ethier, Lowe hope to remain hot for Dodgers vs. Padres

Sep 10, 2008 - 10:07 AM LA Dodgers (74-71) at San Diego (56-89) 10:05 pm EDT

SAN DIEGO (Ticker) -- The arrival of Manny Ramirez was bound to pick up the moribund Los Angeles Dodgers offense. Perhaps no player has benefited more from his presence than Andre Ethier.

Ethier will try to continue his hot-hitting ways on Wednesday when the Dodgers meet the San Diego Padres.

Since manager Joe Torre elected to slot Ethier in the No. 2 spot ahead of Ramirez 12 games ago, the 26-year-old has been on fire, batting .500 (23-for-46) with 14 RBI.

The duo continued inflicting damage on their opponents in Tuesday's 6-2 win over the Padres as Ethier's four-RBI effort complemented Ramirez's 12th homer as a Dodger since he was acquired from the Boston Red Sox at the trade deadline.

In addition to his 36 RBI in 37 games with Los Angeles, Ramirez is hitting .401 while helping his new team take a 2 1/2-game lead over Arizona (71-73) in the National League West.

Derek Lowe (12-11, 3.53 ERA) has been instrumental in giving the Dodgers some breathing room in the division after stellar back-to-back wins over the Diamondbacks.

After tossing six scoreless frames in an 8-1 win over his division rival on August 31, the sinkerballer actually improved in Friday's 7-0 rout of Arizona, yielding two hits and two walks over eight innings to extend his consecutive scoreless innings streak to 19.

The Padres will counter with Shawn Estes (2-1, 2.97), who will try to repeat his last outing. The lefthander, who had been out of action since May 28 due to a broken thumb, returned to baffle the Brewers in a 5-2 victory on Thursday, allowing one run and seven hits in six innings for his first win since May 13.