Manny Ramirez is not one to get overly excited about a potential sweep in August, or even a hitting funk here or there.
Ramirez hit a towering two-run homer and also doubled in a run after two earlier intentional walks and the Los Angeles Dodgers routed the rival San Francisco Giants 9-1 on Tuesday night.
The slugger is certainly doing his part to give the Dodgers some separation in the division race. And Los Angeles sure seems to be back on track after losing three straight to Atlanta over the weekend.
"When you play 162 games, things like this are going to happen. We're fine," Ramirez said. "We've still got two months to go, so it doesn't matter if we come here and win three or lose two. We've still got to push it 'til the end."
Andre Ethier doubled twice and drove in two runs for the NL West-leading Dodgers, who increased their division lead over the Giants to 7½ games and hold a 7-4 edge in the season series after winning the first two games of this series.
Matt Kemp added a three-run homer three batters after Ramirez connected in the seventh and many fans in the sellout crowd of 41,167 quickly started heading for the exits.
