Surging Dodgers pummel Pirates, 8-2

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Hiroki Kuroda allowed three hits over seven shutout innings for his first road win in more than two months and Manny Ramirez had three more hits, leading the surging Los Angeles Dodgers past the Pittsburgh Pirates, 8-2 Monday night.

With Juan Pierre homering for the first time in nearly two years, the Dodgers rebounded from a 1-0, 10-inning loss at Colorado on Sunday for their 13th victory in 15 games — a surge that has given them a five-game lead in the NL West over Arizona.

The Pirates swept three games from St. Louis over the weekend, but did nothing with Kuroda (9-10), who hadn’t won in six road starts since beating Houston 4-1 on July 2. Kuroda (9-10) permitted one runner to reach third and yielded only one hit, Nyjer Morgan’s double in the sixth, after the first.

Ramirez has played the biggest role in the turnaround, hitting .395 with 14 homers and 43 RBIs in 42 games since being dealt by the Red Sox to the Dodgers on July 31 — a three-team deal completed only after the Pirates agreed to trade Jason Bay to Boston. Ramirez’s production is the best of any player added in a late-season trade since Hank Sauer had 15 homers and 47 RBIs in his first 40 games with the Cubs in 1949.

Ramirez doubled in the Dodgers’ first two runs in a three-run third against Ross Ohlendorf (0-2), with the other run scoring on catcher Ryan Doumit’s throwing error. Ramirez singled off the right-field wall an inning later — the two runners held up to see if the ball would be caught — and James Loney had a two-run single.

Pierre, starting a third consecutive game because Andre Ethier was attending the birth of his first child, had three hits and scored three runs.