Dodgers Sweep Cardinals

But he faded in his final two starts, and that version of Pineiro took the mound Saturday. He could not harness his sinker, leaving it up in the strike zone, and the Dodgers rattled him for seven hits in four innings. Ramirez traditionally punishes Pineiro, and in his first at-bat he ripped a double that scored Matt Kemp.

Dodgers skipper Joe Torre is making a 14h consecutive post-season appearance, the first dozen spent with the New York Yankees before joining Los Angeles prior to last season. He has reached the championship series stage for the ninth time in his managerial career.

“When we signed him, we sat down and talked and told him he would be judged from that day forward,” a champagne-drenched Ned Colletti, Dodgers GM, said as the clubhouse celebration raged behind him. “I told him, ‘You’ll write the next chapter.’ And he said, ‘You’ll see the best of me.’ He wasn’t wrong.”

It's probably no coincidence that two of the most recent three times Ramirez has played in the postseason, he's left with a World Series ring. The only one of those three postseason visits that ended prematurely was last year's, when the Dodgers were beaten by the Phillies in the NLCS. All Ramirez did in that five-game series was hit .533 with two doubles, two homers and seven RBIs. You clearly couldn't blame him for the task left unfinished.

Ethier  is  the  nephew  of  Ron  Darling  who  lost  Game  7  of  the  1988  NLCS  for  the  Mets  against  the  Dodgers  and  Orel  Hershiser,  6-0.  The  Dodgers  scored  all  six  runs  off  Darling  in  the  first  two innings.  Andre  would  not  be  in  a  Los  Angeles  uniform  had  84-year-old  Dodger  scout  Al  LaMacchia  not  convinced  Colletti  to  substitute  Antonio  Perez  for  Ethier  in  the  2005  trade  with  Oakland  for Milton  Bradley.  Al  is  still  scouting  at  88.