That’s just Hanley being Manny
SAN FRANCISCO — Hanley Ramirez produced the kind of magical moment Friday night that the Dodgers envisioned when they inherited the $38-million remaining on his contract.
The capacity crowd at AT&T Park fell silent as Ramirez launched a 10th-inning slider from Sergio Romo into the left-field stands for a two-out, two-run home run that lifted the Dodgers to a 5-3 victory over the San Francisco Giants. The home run, Ramirez’s first with his new team and 15th of the season, moved the Dodgers to within two games of the first-place Giants in the National League West.
“It’s why I’m here — to win every day,” Ramirez said.
The recently acquired three-time All-Star’s homer
was reminiscent of the kind of drama routinely produced by another Ramirez — Manny — after the Dodgers acquired him in a deadline deal four years ago. And it emphasized that these weren’t the same Dodgers who visited San Francisco last month.
Those Dodgers didn’t have Matt Kemp, who was sidelined by a strained left hamstring. Those Dodgers lost Andre Ethier to a strained rib-cage muscle. Those Dodgers were swept in three games and didn’t score a single run in the series.
After the game-winning homer cleared the fence Friday, the Dodgers dugout exploded as Ramirez rounded the bases. He turned toward the dugout and gestured, as if to ask, “Did you see it?”
Said catcher A.J. Ellis: “It’s unbelievable. The ball was crushed. It’s just a different sound when it’s coming off his bat.”
With rookie Nathan Eovaldi traded to the Florida Marlins as part of the deal to acquire Ramirez, the Dodgers called up Stephen Fife from triple-A Albuquerque to take his place in the rotation and start Friday night.
In only his second major league start, Fife held San Francisco to a run and six hits over 61⁄ innings,
3 out-pitching Giants ace Matt Cain. When he departed the game, the Dodgers were leading, 3-1.
Fife made his debut July 17 against the Philadelphia Phillies and was optioned to Albuquerque the next day. He wouldn’t have been eligible to face the Giants if not for an injury to Scott Elbert, as rules prohibit a player from being sent down to the minor leagues and called back up within 10 days.
Pitching in front of a packed house, Fife was shaky early.
With men on the corners in the first inning, he got Angel Pagan to ground into an inning-ending force out.
In the second, Fife loaded the bases with one out. The Giants took a 1-0 lead when Nate Schierholtz grounded into a force out.
Fife was in trouble again in the fourth inning, but Kemp’s glove saved him. With men on first and second, Kemp made an over-theshoulder running catch at the warning track to end the inning.
The Dodgers reversed the deficit in the fifth inning. Their two-run surge was started by Fife, who doubled to right field with two outs. Jerry Hairston Jr. followed with another double to right that drove in Fife, and Hairston scored on a single by Mark Ellis to move the Dodgers ahead, 2-1.
The two runs ended the Dodgers’ 38-inning scoreless streak at AT&T Park, which dated to last season.
The Dodgers increased their lead to 3-1 an inning later, when Ethier doubled and scored on a single by James Loney.
But the two-run margin vanished in the eighth, when slumping setup man Ronald Belisario gave up a leadoff single to Melky Cabrera, a one-out ground-rule double to Pagan and a two-run single to center by Brandon Belt that tied it, 3-3.