NewsEthier's three jacks pace Dodgers
Kershaw beneficiary of slugger's career night vs. M's
By David Ely / MLB.com
06/27/09 2:20 AM ET
LOS ANGELES -- While Dodgers starter Clayton Kershaw made his mark via finesse on Friday night vs. the Mariners, Andre Ethier impacted the game via the brute force generated from his left-handed swing.
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Ethier enjoyed the first three-homer game of his career in Los Angeles' 8-2 victory over Seattle.
The Dodgers right fielder began his assault in the second. After Casey Blake and James Loney led off the inning with a double and a single, respectively, Ethier rocketed a Jason Vargas offering into the right-field bleachers.
That one swing gave the Dodgers an early three-run lead -- good enough for the win by itself -- but it was just the beginning for Ethier.
With the Dodgers leading, 5-2, in the sixth inning, Ethier sent another ball over the right-field fence for a two-run shot and a five-run Dodgers lead. In the eighth, Ethier completed the hat trick with a solo homer.
The three home runs were a career-high for Ethier as were his six RBIs.
And even though the final blast prompted a curtain call, Ethier was characteristically humble about the feat after the game.
"I don't know about a dream come true, but it's definitely something that I never dreamed of before," Ethier said.
Ethier said that he didn't head to the batter's box in the eighth looking for his third home run because he didn't want to waste a successful night with an out.
And he seemed more fixated on trying to solve his power struggles away from the friendly confines of Dodger Stadium -- of Ethier's 14 home runs, all but one have come at home.
"It's frustrating," Ethier said. "It's something that I don't think about and try not to, but guys definitely did remind me of that tonight."
But given Ethier's knack for home run tears, it's only a matter of time until he goes deep wearing the Dodgers grey uniforms instead of the whites.
Kershaw, meanwhile, overcame the control issues he's battled seemingly all season.
Full counts and walks had plagued the 21-year-old left-hander intermittently this year as he's tried to find a way to corral his abilities to fully capitalize on his innate talent.
Sure there were signs of him putting the pieces together, a couple of 1-2-3 innings here and a promising outing last Sunday against the Angels.
But for all of those moments there would be games in which he could never get a feel for the ball and exited the game early because of a high pitch count.
His stuff never was in question, just his ability to consistently find his spots and stay ahead in counts.
On Friday, Kershaw had no problem locating his pitches.
"He grew a little bit his last outing on Sunday and tonight was just an add-on," Dodgers manager Joe Torre said. "Any time you can put two or three [starts] back-to-back like that, that means you're making some progress."
Torre said that Kershaw was more comfortable throwing all of his pitches against the Mariners rather than just relying on fastballs to get through the lineup.
That was evident in the top of the third inning when he struck out the side for his third straight perfect inning to start the game.
And in each at-bat of the third, Kershaw showed how difficult his stuff can be for opposing hitters when he's locating his pitches.
Kershaw struck out Wladimir Balentien with a four-seam fastball that dove away from the right-hander's bat just as it crossed the plate. The next batter, Ronny Cedeno, fell victim to Kershaw's power, whiffing on a high fastball.
And then Vargas struck out to end the inning on a sweeping curveball.
"I think that's the key for me is trying to incorporate all of my pitches. Sometimes, when I get into trouble, I just want to go hard, hard, hard and get people out," Kershaw said. "And sometimes the best way to do that is by backing off."
In all, Kershaw struck out eight and walked just one for his fifth win.
"The team's a very aggressive team, so I was just trying to really get out there and get a head of them early and work off of that and work off there aggressiveness," Kershaw said.
"And I only walked one and that's probably a little bit of a testament to their type of team. ... That was a big improvement for my part tonight."
David Ely is an associate reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
