James Loney hit a go-ahead grand slam off a wild Ryan Dempster, Ramirez and Russell Martin homered and the new-look Dodgers beat the Chicago Cubs 7-2 in their NL playoff opener Wednesday night.
The Cubs entered the postseason with the best record in league, hoping for a fast start 100 years after their last World Series championship.
But Ramirez and Torre, winners of six World Series crowns in the AL, wound up on top in their first playoff game together. Ramirez’s homer was his 25th in the postseason, extending his own record.
“We get a sense of what he’s been doing all these years,” Loney said.
It was a good omen for the Dodgers. The last time they started a postseason series with a victory was 1988 — the Kirk Gibson game in the World Series.
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Jason Bay hit a go-ahead, two-run homer off John Lackey in the sixth inning, and the World Series champions beat the Angels 4-1 Wednesday night in the opener of their AL playoff series.
Acquired in the three-team trade that sent Manny Ramirez to the Los Angeles Dodgers, Bay brought Boston back from a 1-0 deficit in the first postseason game of his career, and the Red Sox got a big start from John Lester (1-0), who allowed only an unearned run in seven innings.
“It’s big. Any time you can come into another team’s ballpark and win is huge,” Lester said.
Los Angeles won eight of nine regular-season games between the teams this year, outscoring the Red Sox 42-17 in the final six. But the Red Sox have won 10 straight postseason games against the Angeles dating to 1986, including first-round sweeps in 2004 and 2007 en route to World Series titles.
Boston tied a major league record for consecutive postseason wins over the same opponent, a mark Oakland set against the Red Sox from 1988-03.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Cole Hamels put Philadelphia in position to win, then Brad Lidge barely hung on. Behind their top two arms, the Phillies grabbed their first postseason victory in 15 years.
Hamels pitched eight brilliant innings, Lidge escaped a ninth-inning jam and Philadelphia took advantage of Mike Cameron’s miscue in center field for a 3-1 win over Milwaukee in their playoff opener Wednesday.
Chase Utley’s two-run double slipped out of Cameron’s glove in the third inning, sending Philadelphia to a 3-0 lead. Lidge allowed a run in the ninth but struck out Corey Hart with runners and second and third to end it.
Game 2 in the best-of-five series is Thursday, with ace CC Sabathia going to the mound for the wild-card Brewers on three days’ rest for the fourth consecutive start. Brett Myers pitches for the Phillies.
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