D-Backs' successful road trip ends on sour note

LOS ANGELES - With Manny hitting like Manny, the road trip did not end the way the Diamondbacks would have wished, but with consecutive losses to Los Angeles.

While the sting of the last two games — including Sunday’s 9-3 loss at Dodger Stadium — did not immediately vanish, the D-Backs could consider their last three-city trip of the season a success. They finished 7-3 and maintained a one-game lead over the Dodgers in the NL West.

“It was kind of a gut check,” outfielder Conor Jackson said. “We knew we had to turn it up. We knew this is when we picked it up last year.”

It was the D-Backs’ first winning road trip since April, when they took three of five on a short visit to Los Angeles and San Diego.

The D-Backs (57-54) had a three-game lead on the Dodgers after winning the first two games of the series and admitted to getting greedy at that point, at 7-1 on the trip.

“Obviously after winning the first two, you’d like to take one of the last two,” manager Bob Melvin said.

“It’s not the worst thing to split here. When you are 7-3 on a 10-game trip, you have to take it.”

The Dodgers (56-55) won for the second time in three games since acquiring Manny Ramirez, who had two singles, a double, and a homer while driving in three runs.

Ramirez was 8-for-13 with two homers and five RBIs against the D-Backs.

“He’s Manny. He can hit. Everybody knows that,” said Stephen Drew, who had three hits, including his 13th home run, a career best. He had 12 last year.

“But he’s only one guy. He played well, and the rest of them did, too.”

Doug Davis, who retired the first 20 batters he faced Tuesday in San Diego, gave up six hits and five runs in 1 1/3 innings, his shortest start of the season.

“It’s weird how good you can be and how (expletive) you can be,” Davis said.

“This is a humbling game. You are on cloud nine. Then you’re below the ground. You don’t feel like you did your job.

“It’s a big difference, being four or five games up and being one up. But the way we’re playing and pitching, we’re going to be all right.”

The D-Backs righted themselves after 2 1/2 months of trouble away from home.

They were 11-24 on the road between visits to the West Coast, winning two of 11 series while splitting two others.

“The good teams find a way to win on the road,” first baseman Tony Clark said.

“This trip, we have been able to put together solid baseball. Guys have thrown the ball well, and we got enough hitting to win ballgames.

“It’s unbelievably cliche-ish, but that’s the way it works.”

Turning point: Manny Ramirez’s two-out double drove in the last run of a three-run second inning for a 5-2 Los Angeles lead.
Stat of the day: Stephen Drew’s fifth-inning home run was his career-high 13th of the season.
Unsung hero: Billy Buckner gave up only one run – a Ramirez home run – in 2 2/3 innings of relief.
Glove-side collision: The Dodgers’ Casey Blake ran into D-Backs first baseman Chad Tracy after hitting a pop-up near the plate in the second inning, knocking Tracy’s glove off. Tracy attempted to catch the ball with his bare left hand but could not. After an umpires conference, Blake was called out for interference.