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Lowe, Blake lead Dodgers over Pirates

Sep 17, 2008 - 4:09 AM By Chris Adamski PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

PITTSBURGH (Ticker) -- Derek Lowe's winning ways continued on Tuesday, and so did those of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Lowe allowed one run over seven innings to win his fourth in a row as the Dodgers won for the 14th time in 16 games with a 6-2 triumph over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Tuesday.

Lowe (14-11), who improved to 6-0 lifetime against Pittsburgh, permitted the Pirates five baserunners - all singles.

"You look at the statistics of our pitching staff since we've been on the run we've been on, it's pretty incredible," Lowe said. "Game in and game out the starters are having a quality start. You want to keep it going as a starter."

Casey Blake had three hits and was a double shy of the cycle, Manny Ramirez went 3-for-5 with an RBI to keep up his torrid pace since joining the Dodgers. Blake DeWitt and Angel Berroa each had two hits for Los Angeles. The Dodgers (79-72) maintained their 4 1/2-game lead in the National League West over the Arizona Diamondbacks (74-76), who recorded a 2-0 victory over the San Francisco Giants on Tuesday.

"You can't look too far ahead," Dodgers manager Joe Torre said. "You keep winning and you know nobody can do anything about it. That's what my mindset right now is: Play every game and win every game. Then you don't have to watch anything or worry about anything."

Nyjer Morgan and Nate McLouth each had two hits for Pittsburgh, which has lost eight of 11.

Blake, who left Sunday's game with tightness in his lower back and did not play Monday, hit his eighth homer to lead off the second. All the offense the Dodgers needed would come later in the inning after a throwing error by Pirates starter Jeff Karstens on an attempted sacrifice bunt by Lowe.

With two on and one out, Karstens fielded the bunt by Lowe, but his throwing error loaded the bases. Russell Martin's sacrifice fly scored DeWitt and Andre Ethier followed with a single to drive in Berroa to give the Dodgers a 3-0 lead.

Ramirez then clubbed a double for his 44th RBI in 43 games with the Dodgers since the July 31 three-way trade that also involved the Pirates brought him to Los Angeles from Boston.

"It makes your job a lot easier when you get a lead," Lowe said. "It seems like the last month every game's been that way, getting early lead that allows me to settle into the game."

DeWitt added a sacrifice fly in the third to drive in Blake and make it 5-0. The Dodgers' final run came in the sixth when Blake's single scored Martin.

"Where it starts is great pitching, like the performance tonight from D-Lowe," Blake said. "You're going to be tough to beat when you get a pitching performance like the one he gave."

The scoring for Pittsburgh came courtesy of an RBI single by Ryan Doumit in the fourth and a sacrifice fly by Brandon Moss in the ninth off of ex-Pirate Joe Beimel.

"It wasn't a very sound game for us tonight," Pirates manager John Russell said. "We didn't pitch very well. Lowe did a nice job against us, but we could have made it a closer game but not being able to make (the) bunt play against a team that's playing well, they really capitalize on it, and that's what they did."

Karstens (2-6) was charged with five runs - two earned - on 11 hits and a walk with two strikeouts in five innings.

"It was a bad outing," Karstens said. "It comes down to wins and losses. If we don't win, it's a bad outing."