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Loney's HR In 11th Ties Dodgers Atop NL West

Saturday, July 19, 2008

(Sports Network) - James Loney belted the winning homer in the 11th inning, and Nomar Garciaparra smacked two balls over the fence and drove in three runs as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Diamondbacks, 8-7, moving into a tie with Arizona atop the NL West.

Matt Kemp also homered for the Dodgers, who began the post All-Star break with their second consecutive win. Blake DeWitt came up with a spectacular game- saving stop at third base to force extra innings, and the Dodgers, despite a 47-49 record, are deadlocked atop the division.

Cory Wade (1-1) pitched the 10th inning and Jonathan Broxton fanned the final two batters in a perfect bottom of the 11th to notch his first save. Broxton has been inserted as the closer for LA while Takashi Saito remains sidelined for approximately six weeks with a sprained ligament in his right elbow.

Conor Jackson and Orlando Hudson each had three hits and scored twice for the Diamondbacks, who have dropped three of their last four games. They have also lost five of their last seven home games.

Arizona had 15 hits, but went just 4-for-16 with runners in scoring position and left 11 men on base.

Chris Young and Alex Romero each singled with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning to put runners at the corners. Augie Ojeda then hit a sharp grounder to third, but DeWitt made a sliding stop and threw to first. Ojeda made a head-first slide, but was barely out.

Loney started the 11th by drilling a 2-1 pitch from Doug Slaten (0-3) over the wall in right field before Broxton closed it out.

Both starting pitchers were pounded. LA's Hiroki Kuroda was lifted after giving up eight hits and six runs -- five earned -- in two innings. Doug Davis was drilled to the tune of five hits and five runs -- four earned -- in three frames.

The teams combined for 12 runs over the first three innings.

"Both teams swung the bat well in the first couple of innings," Arizona manager Bob Melvin said. "It looked a little sloppy defensively in the first couple of innings, tightened it up considerably and it ended up being a good game."

Los Angeles' first five batters reached safely in the opening inning. That included back-to-back RBI doubles for Andre Ethier and Russell Martin. Garciaparra singled in a run later in the inning for a 3-0 cushion.

However, Arizona put together five straight singles to grab a 4-3 edge in the bottom half. Chad Tracy, Mark Reynolds and Miguel Montero each had RBI singles, and Chris Young's groundout plated another run.

A wild pitch by Kuroda scored Jackson in the second and Tracy followed with an RBI double for a 6-3 lead.

Jeff Kent walked with two down in the third and Garciaparra then homered to center.

"First, it's good to help" said Garciaparra. "That's really it, it's just a matter of contributing. They swung the bats really well, put some runs up; we needed to put some runs up ourselves in order to pull this one off."

Arizona got the run back in the bottom of the inning when Young scored on a Romero groundout, but Garciaparra led off the sixth with a homer to left, and Kemp tied it in the seventh with a one-out blast to left off Leo Rosales.

Game Notes

Dodgers manager Joe Torre celebrated his 68th birthday Friday...The Diamondbacks placed outfielder Justin Upton on the 15-day disabled list Friday with a left oblique strain...The Diamondbacks still lead the season series, 4-2...Don Mattingly returned to the dugout as hitting coach for the Dodgers. Mattingly had been working as a special assistant to the team...This was Garciaparra's 18th career multi-homer game, last done on August 4, 2002 against Texas...Newly re-acquired first baseman Tony Clark replaced Upton on the 25-man roster, and he struck out as a pinch hitter in the ninth inning.

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