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| 3rd October, 2008 - 12:52 am | Andrew Perna/RealGM - The Dodgers are one win away from eliminating the Cubs after their second-consecutive blowout victory at Wrigley Field on Thursday night.
Los Angeles, who won 10-3 in Game 2, received a superb pitching performance from Chad Billingsley, who went 6 2/3 innings with seven strikeouts and a single earned run on five hits.
The Dodgers smacked Carlos Zambrano around early and often, as Chicago let him down with a number of errors early in the game.
Andre Ethier singled to kick off the top of the second, and James Loney followed that up with another single. Zambrano struck Matt Kemp out, but Blake DeWitt reached first base on an error by Mark DeRosa.
Ethier scored, and the flood gates opened at Wrigley.
Casey Blake reached on an error by Derrek Lee, loading the bases. Billingsley then struck out for the second out, which should have been the fourth out of the inning.
Rafael Furcal reached on an infield single to score Loney, and Russell Martin then doubled to center to clear the bases.
Zambrano struck Manny Ramirez out, but five runs were on the board and the damage was already done.
Ramirez added a run on a homer in the fifth, and Kemp added an RBI double in the seventh to push L.A.'s lead to 7-0.
Jim Edmonds doubled DeRosa home in the bottom of the seventh to put Chicago on the board, but Los Angeles wasn't done scoring.
The Dodgers added two more runs on RBI singles by Furcal and Ramirez in the eighth, and Blake singled home yet another run in the top of the ninth to push the lead to 10-1.
The Cubs would threaten in the bottom of the ninth against Dodgers' closer Takashi Saito, but it was too little, too late.
Lee and Amaris Ramirez reached to start the inning, with DeRosa doubling them both home to cut the deficit to seven runs.
Dodgers' Manager Joe Torre brought Jonathan Broxton in to relieve Saito with no outs and Felix Pie coming to the plate.
Pie walked, to put runners on first and second with no outs for Geovany Soto, who promptly lined out to second.
Kosuke Fukudome then struck out looking for the second out of the inning, leaving pinch-hitter Daryle Ward to keep Chicago's hopes alive.
With the count 3-2, Ward fouled off a fastball before Broxton struck him out looking to end the game.
Game 3 will be Saturday in Los Angeles with Hiroki Kuroda (9-10, 3.73 ERA) on the mound for the Dodgers against Chicago's Rich Harden (10-2, 2.07 ERA). [READ] |
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