Close Call: Dodgers Sqeak Past Nats

It was a little tougher than expected, but the Dodgers managed to scratch out a win over the lowly Nationals.  The too-close-for-comfort 7-6 win over Washington cut the magic number to clinch a playoff berth to just one.  Vicente Padilla struggled for the second straight start, giving up four runs over five innings of work.  Ronald Belisario fell apart in his relief appearance, allowing two runs on three hits and a walk.  The Nats scored six runs off the best pitching staff in the bigs, but the offense helped pick up the slack.

The Dodgers scored four runs in the first inning, three being driven in by Matt Kemp’s home run.  Blake DeWitt had two RBI’s in a rare start, and Manny Ramirez scored twice and drove in a run.  However, Rafael Furcal stole the show.  The shortstop had four hits, two runs scored and an RBI, and hit the game-winning home run in the eighth inning with the scored tied at six.  George Sherrill and Jonathan Broxton shut down the Nationals in the eighth and ninth, and the Dodgers escaped the nation’s capital with a series victory.

Andre Ethier scored a run, but he also saved one too.  In the eighth inning, Sherrill walked the speedy Willie Harris.  Harris stole second, and after Ian Desmond singled to right, he raced to home to try and tie the score.  However, Ethier threw a laser to Russell Martin, and the catcher applied the tag just in time to get Harris for the third out.

Matt Kemp’s three-run blast gave the center fielder 100 RBI’s for the season.  Kemp joins Ethier as the only players with triple digits in that category, and it is the first time the Dodgers have had two players reach that mark since 2001, when Shawn Green had 125 and Gary Sheffield had 100.