Los Angeles — Six days after their postseason chances seemed diminished, the Braves flew home Sunday night with renewed optimism following a rather improbable and wholly impressive series win against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The Braves scored five runs in the ninth inning of an 8-2 win Sunday at Dodger Stadium, an exclamation mark for a 5-2 trip that saw the Braves take three in a row from the Dodgers after blowing a late lead in a series-opening loss Thursday.
“It was just a great win, man,” said Javier Vazquez (10-7), who limited the Dodgers to one run and five hits in eight innings Sunday and reached double-digit wins for his 10th consecutive season. “After the bad loss in the first game, to come back and beat them three games, it was a great series for us.”
Matt Diaz had three hits, including a home run, and Martin Prado drove in three runs as the Braves notched their fifth win in six games.
“We had great pitching and a lot of clutch hitting,” said manager Bobby Cox, whose resurgent Braves closed to within 3-1/2 games of the National League wild-card lead and 4-1/2 games behind East leader Philadelphia. “We had a great road trip. We’ve got to just keep plugging along.”
The Phillies come to town for a three-game weekend series at Turner Field starting Friday, after the Braves play two against the streaking Washington Nationals on Tuesday and Wednesday.
After losing last Monday at San Diego — their fifth loss in seven games — the Braves snapped to attention and won five of the last six on the trip, including a pair of riveting extra-innings wins Friday and Saturday against a Dodgers team that has the best record in the National League.
“Pretty phenomenal,” Diaz said. “We’re pretty happy. To come out west and go .500 is [usually] good for us. Us Georgia boys, we don’t like to travel west of the Mississippi.
“But to come out and take three out of four from one of the best teams in baseball ... it’s a good trip.”
After losing two of three at home last week against the Dodgers, then losing Thursday on Andre Ethier’s three-run homer off closer Rafael Soriano, no one could have predicted what happened over the past three days before large crowds at Dodger Stadium.
“Certainly didn’t see it coming, after Thursday,” said Chipper Jones, who missed the last three games of the series with a strained left oblique. “But the guys were awesome. Played outstanding. Made big pitches, got big hits, made big defensive plays ... came in here and played outstanding baseball.”
Although the Braves have had a few particularly disappointing losses lately, their 24-14 record since June 28 is the best in the National League.
“We’ve won some important games in this stretch,” said Vazquez, who had seven strikeouts and two walks Sunday while improving to 5-0 with a 2.50 ERA in his past six starts. “Today was a good win, to go back to Atlanta after winning three of four against one of the best teams in baseball.”
Vazquez said he was inspired by teammate Kenshin Kawakami’s performance Saturday, when he pitched seven scoreless innings in a 2-1, 10-inning win.
“I wanted to continue and follow that performance,” said Vazquez, who served by striking out the side in the first inning.
The Dodgers got a run in the fourth after a single and Manny Ramirez’s bloop double, the only inning where they had more than one runner on base against Vazquez.
“Vazquez was just dynamite,” Cox said. “We got two great back-to-back performances out of Kawakami and Vazquez, and we needed it. We were thin out in the bullpen.”
Even on a day when the Braves took an 8-1 lead to the ninth, Cox ended up using workhorse Peter Moylan. After Manny Acosta allowed a run and three hits in the ninth, Moylan came in and recorded the final out in his major league-leading 63rd appearance.
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