DODGERS DOWN D-BACKS AGAIN

Yasiel Puig had three hits and drove in two runs, and Austin Barnes added a key two-run double as LA powered past Arizona 8-5 for a 2-0 lead in their NL Division Series.

LOS ANGELES — Yasiel Puig had three hits and drove in two runs, and Austin Barnes added a key two-run double as the Los Angeles Dodgers used another relentless offensive performance to beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 8-5 on Saturday night for a 2-0 lead in their NL Division Series.

Logan Forsythe had three hits and Kenley Jansen earned a flawless five-out save for the Dodgers, who have made their mediocre pitching irrelevant by pounding out 17 runs and 24 hits in the first two games against their NL West rival.

Paul Goldschmidt hit a two-run homer in the first inning and Brandon Drury added a pinch-hit, three-run shot in the seventh, but the Diamondbacks are on the brink of elimination after Robbie Ray and reliever Jimmie Sherfy couldn’t contain the Dodgers’ lineup.

Game 3 of the best-of-five matchup is Monday at Chase Field. Arizona ace Zack Greinke will attempt to save the season when he faces his former teammates with the Dodgers, who counter with late-season acquisition Yu Darvish.

Greinke is probably the Diamondbacks’ best chance to stop the Dodgers from scoring their way out of every problem.

“If you had to pick the one guy to stop the situation we’re in, we’ve got the right guy in Zack Greinke,” Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said.

Los Angeles turned an early 2-0 deficit in Game 2 into a 7-2 advantage. LA scored two runs in the fourth and four more in the fifth.

Forsythe got his first career playoff RBI during that stretch, and Barnes followed with his two-run double. With the Dodger Stadium crowd chanting his name, Puig added an RBI single to his earlier run-scoring ground-out, flipping his bat and pointing back to the Dodgers’ dugout as he sprinted toward first base.

Puig has five hits and four RBIs in two games, but the exuberant Cuban slugger is just one purring component of the Dodgers’ formidable offensive machine.

The winner of this NLDS series advances to face the winner of the Cubs-Nationals series.