Jon Garland Breezes Through 9

Dodgers 6 11 0
Braves    1 4  0
WP- Garland (1-1)
LP-Lowe (2-3)
HR- Ethier (2)


Even though Derek Lowe pitched in familiar territory Wednesday evening at Dodger Stadium, it was Jon Garland's night as he had a 108 pitch complete game to give the Dodgers their second win of the series and a birthday present for Don Mattingly who turned the big 50 today.

Lowe's worries came early when the Dodgers started off strong, maybe in frustration from last night's debacle. Casey Blake singled in the first inning, followed by a ground rule double by Andre Ethier. He extends his hitting streak to 17 games, a career high. Uribe, who amazingly had a good night, singled in Blake and Ethier giving the Dodgers a 2-0 lead. Loney also singled in the inning.

In the second, unnaturally beefed up Uggla got a lead off walk only to be cut down by Big Rod in an attempt to steal second. More hitting ensued in the bottom half of the second, as Lowe attempted to quickly pitch. Garland draws a key walk, Blake singles Garland to third, Ethier singles in Garland making it 3-0 Dodgers. Kemp singles to load the bases when he beats out Gonzalez's throw. Uribe then gets his second single of the night to bring in both Blake and Ethier and the Dodgers are up 5-0. Kemp gets a little greedy, and his thrown out trying to steal 3rd.

The Braves would score their only run in the third inning when McLouth leads off with a double, Lowe bunts him to third, and then scores on Prado's sac fly making it 5-1.

Garland has a 1-2-3 inning in the fourth. Lowe is out of the game by the fourth inning, and Cristhian Martinez comes in to pitch the 4th.

Lowe goes 3 innings, allowing 9 hits, 5 runs, 1 walk, and 5 strikeouts.

Andre Ethier comes up and wallops a solo hr making it 6-1 Dodgers. This is Andre's 100th career homerun and third hit of the night. He only was shy a triple to hit for the cycle.

Garland cruises through the next few innings. Going 1-2-3 in the 6th, and striking out Heyward three times during the night. Heyward is now 0-13 in the series. In the 8th Uribe gets his third single of the night as well. Donnie lets Garland finish off what he started, and he goes 1-2-3 in the 9th to shut down the Braves and get the complete game. Thank the lord we didn't have to see any of the bullpen tonight.

Garland pitches 9 innings, allowing only 4 hits, 1 run, 2 walks, and 4 strikeouts.

A remarkable turnaround game! Last night was the worst of the worst, and tonight we see awesome starting pitching, Ethier's hitting streak continue along with his 100th career HR AND him nearly hit for the cycle, Big Rod throws out a runner, and Uribe has 3 hits and 4, yes I said 4, RBIs bumping up his average to over .200!

Tomorrow afternoon Clayton Kershaw will go for the series win. With McCourt out, maybe some winning will come in! Good night Dodger fans:)