Ethier goes 4 for 4 as Dodgers rout Marlins
LOS ANGELES — Andre Ethier was 4 for 4 with a homer and four RBIs, Hanley Ramirez and Juan Rivera also went deep against Nathan Eovaldi in his return to Dodger Stadium, and Los Angeles went on to beat the Miami Marlins on 11-4 on Friday night.
Rivera started at first base instead of James Loney, who was pulled from manager Don Mattingly’s original lineup after word spread of a proposed blockbuster trade that would send Loney, infielder Ivan De Jesus, outfielder Jerry Sands and pitchers Rubby De La Rosa and Allen Webster to the Boston Red Sox for first baseman Adrian Gonzalez, pitcher Josh Beckett, left fielder Carl Crawford and infielder Nick Punto.
Chad Billingsley, trying to win his seventh straight start, departed in the fourth with a 6-3 lead because of tenderness in his elbow. The right-hander was charged with three runs, five hits and three walks over 3 1-3 innings in his shortest outing this season after giving up a two-run homer in the first by Jose Reyes.
Rob Brantley lined a double off the bullpen gate in right field on Billingsley’s 58th and final pitch, giving the Marlins two men in scoring position with one out. Winning pitcher Jamey Wright (5-3) inherited a 2-0 count on pinch-hitter Gorkys Hernandez, who ended up with a walk that was charged to Billingsley. But Bryan Petersen struck out and Justin Ruggiano looked at a called third strike.
Eovaldi (4-9) gave up six runs and seven hits over three innings in his sixth start for the Marlins, who acquired him on July 24 in the trade that sent Ramirez and reliever Randy Choate to Los Angeles. The 22-year-old right-hander, who gave up only five home runs in 80 1-3 innings for the Dodgers this season, hadn’t allowed one in his first 24 innings with Miami entering Friday.
The Dodgers, coming off a three-game sweep by San Francisco that turned a half-game lead in the NL West into a 2 1-2 game deficit, entered this series three games off the pace. And for the fourth straight game, they fell behind in the first inning.
Pedersen led off with a single and the switch-hitting Reyes hit his 10th home run into the lower seats in the right field corner — two pitches after Matt Kemp caught Ruggiano’s drive while banging into the center field fence. It was only the second homer against Billingsley in his last 10 starts.
Ethier, who was 3 for 26 with two RBIs in his previous seven games, put Los Angeles ahead 3-2 in the bottom half with his 13th homer after a walk to Mark Ellis and a single by Kemp. The Marlins tied it in the second on groundout by Petersen that scored Donovan Solano, but Rivera regained the lead for the Dodgers in the bottom half with an opposite-field leadoff homer.
Ramirez increased the margin to 6-3 in the third with his 20th homer and sixth with Los Angeles. Kemp and Ethier added RBI singles against Carlos Zambrano during a five-run seventh that made it 11-4. The other three runs that inning came when Luis Cruz reached on an infield hit and circled the bases behind Kemp and Ethier on throwing errors by third baseman Greg Dobbs and right fielder Giancarlo Stanton.
Miami’s Carlos Lee tried to stretch a single off the third base bag into a double in the fifth and was thrown by left fielder Shane Victorino. The next hitter was Stanton, who drove Wright’s 2-2 pitch deep into the left field pavilion for his 27th homer and sixth in nine games.
NOTES: Billingsley is 6-0 with a 1.80 ERA in seven starts since coming off the DL on July 23. As a result of the All-Star break, he missed only one start because of inflammation in his elbow. ... Wright was given as much time as he needed to warm up because of Billingsley’s injury, so organist Nancy Bea Hefley played a few choruses of “If it Takes Forever I Will Wait For You.” ... Lee played his first game at Dodger Stadium since turning down a trade to them in early July while he was still with the Astros. The Marlins acquired him just days later. ... Ethier’s homer was his first at Dodger Stadium since July 14 against San Diego’s Brad Brach, and just his second at Chavez Ravine since May 14 against Arizona’s Ian Kennedy. ... Stanton had one hit in his previous 20 at-bats against the Dodgers before the home run. He has hit 14 of his 27 homers against NL West teams, more than any other player. ... De La Rosa was optioned to Double-A Chattanooga and OF-INF Alex Castellanos was recalled from Triple-A Albuquerque. De La Rosa allowed two runs in two-thirds of an inning Wednesday night in his first appearances in the majors since undergoing Tommy John surgery on Aug. 9, 2011. ... Los Angeles is 48-4 when scoring more than four runs, and 20-54 the rest of the time.