James Loney hit a go-ahead grand slam off a wild Ryan Dempster and Ramirez and Russell Martin homered as the new-look Dodgers beat the Chicago Cubs 7-2 in their National League Division Series opener Wednesday night.
“The atmosphere here was real quiet as I was going around the bases,” Loney said. “So I think our fans were cheering back home.”
The Cubs entered the postseason with the best record in the NL, 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 American League, wound up on top in their first playoff game together. Ramirez’s homer was his 25th in the playoffs, extending his record.
“I’m just being Manny,” he said. “That’s it. I’m just happy that I’m here in L.A.”
After being traded from the Boston Red Sox, Ramirez sparked the Dodgers to the NL West title. And there he was Wednesday, leading them and hustling to beat out an infield single in the third inning.
“We get a sense of what he’s been doing all these years,” said Loney, who played at Fort Bend Elkins near Houston.
The win 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.
The Cubs will try to get even in Game 2 of the best-of-five series tonight when they send Carlos Zambrano against the Dodgers’ Chad Billingsley.
Only 18 of 56 teams who lost the division series opener came back to win the series, including four of 28 in the NL.
“Let’s hope we get better,” Cubs manager Lou Piniella said. “Let’s put this one behind us and go get them tomorrow.”
Torre made his 13th straight postseason managerial appearance - the previous 12 were with the New York Yankees - and extended his record for postseason wins to 77 in a matchup with fellow veteran Piniella.
“It does lot for our confidence,” Torre said. “We know how good Chicago is. We know how consistent they’ve been all year. And to have them get a lead and for us to just maintain our patience, it’s important.”
The Cubs took a 2-0 lead on Mark DeRosa’s homer in the second inning off Derek Lowe, but the Dodgers rebounded against Dempster, who had trouble finding the strike zone. He walked the bases loaded in the fifth, and Loney delivered for the Dodgers.
After swinging and missing the first two pitches, he sent a 1-2 pitch over the wall in center for the grand slam that gave the Dodgers a 4-2 lead and silenced a Wrigley Field crowd that was cheering loudly for Dempster to get out of the jam he created.
“Invariably, when you keep putting people on, they’re going to score, and they scored there quickly with that grand slam,” Piniella said.
When Matt Kemp followed with a double, Piniella brought in Sean Marshall. He gave up Ramirez’s solo shot in the seventh that made it 5-2.
Dempster, 14-3 at Wrigley during the regular season, threw 109 pitches in 4 2/3 innings, giving up four runs and four hits while matching a career high with seven walks.
“I sure put myself in a tough situation,” he said.
Lowe went 6-1 in his final 10 starts as the Dodgers got past Arizona to win the NL West, with a huge boost from Ramirez’s 17 homers and 53 RBI in 53 games. Lowe allowed two runs and seven hits in six innings.
The Cubs are out to end their 100-year championship drought, and the Dodgers had been 1-12 in the playoffs since they beat Oakland in the 1988 World Series.
