THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
PHOENIX — Andre Ethier and Casey Blake hit first-inning homers, and the Los Angeles Dodgers roughed up Brandon Webb and Arizona 8-1 on Sunday, climbing within 2 1/2 games of the Diamondbacks in the NL West.
Derek Lowe (11-11) tossed six shutout innings as the Dodgers took two of three games from Arizona after entering the series having lost seven straight. Los Angeles won a road series for the first time since July 20, when they also took two of three in Phoenix.
After dropping Friday night’s opener to fall 4 1/2 games back, Los Angeles rebounded to beat Arizona aces Dan Haren and Webb by a combined score of 14-3.
Webb (19-6) failed in his second bid to become the majors’ first 20-game winner. Unable to command his fastball and sinker, Webb allowed six earned runs, eight hits and five walks in 3 1-3 innings, matching his shortest outing of the season.
Webb got off to a rocky start and never recovered.
Ethier, the game’s second batter, hit an 0-2 pitch 401 feet into the pool beyond the right-centre field wall.
After a walk, a single and a fielder’s choice, Blake hit a 2-0 delivery even farther — 432 feet, off a railing above the pool to put the Dodgers ahead 4-0. The Chase Field crowd of 43,456, armed with red “BEAT LA” placards, groaned.
Webb had allowed two homers in his previous 70 2-3 innings.
The Dodgers added another run on Blake Dewitt’s sacrifice fly in the third.
In the fourth, the Dodgers led 6-0 when Russell Martin of Chelsea, Que., singled and scored on Ethier’s double. Webb was gone after third baseman Mark Reynolds let a grounder go by him for a two-run error.
In his last two starts, the seemingly invulnerable Webb has yielded 12 earned runs and 17 hits in eight innings.
Reynolds hit a solo homer off reliever Scott Elbert in the seventh, his 26th.
Lowe allowed four hits and one walk in six innings while striking out two. He won for the first time in eight starts at Chase Field.
Notes: The Dodgers and Diamondbacks play three games next weekend in Los Angeles in their final regular season series. … Newly acquired 2B David Eckstein is expected to join the Diamondbacks on Monday in time for an afternoon game against St. Louis, one of his former teams. He would be eligible for the playoff roster. … Dodgers LF Manny Ramirez went 0-for-1 with three walks on Sunday. In the three-game series, Ramirez was 8-for-10 with two homers and four walks, and he scored six runs. … Los Angeles OF Andruw Jones, out since Aug. 10 with a left knee injury, is expected to rejoin the Dodgers on Monday. … Dodgers 1B James Loney singled to left in the first to extend his hitting streak to 11 games.
