Dodgers mount comeback to down Cubs

Going into the seventh inning of last night’s match up with the Cubs, the situation looked dire.

Chicago held a 4-1 lead, Zack Greinke was on the bench after giving up four runs in five innings and Los Angeles had been held to one run on five hits off of Tsuyoshi Wada and reliever Justin Grimm.

The Dodgers were staring at their third straight loss.

Matt Kemp started the inning with a line drive to left that stayed in the park only because the winds off Lake Michigan were blowing in and held his fly ball within the ivy of Wrigley Field.

Hanley Ramirez then blistered a ground ball off the glove of Logan Watkins at second and Mattingly pinch-hit Carl Crawford for Scott Van Slyke. Crawford rewarded his skipper with a sharp single to right and the Dodgers had runners on first and second with one out.

Juan Uribe then handcuffed Watkins with a one-hopper to second that he booted, allowing Ramirez to score and putting runners on first and second.

Mattingly continued to move the chess pieces around the board, pinch-hitting Andre Ethier for A.J. Ellis. Ethier swung and missed on Neil Ramirez’ first offering, a breaking ball in the dirt then took the second pitch, another breaking ball.

On the third pitch of the at-bat Ethier got what he was looking for – a 95 mph fastball and drove the pitch into the gap in left center for a double, scoring Crawford and putting runners on second and third.

Justin Turner pinch-hit for Paco Rodriguez and hit a soft bouncer to third, scoring Uribe and moving Ethier to third. With the score knotted at 4-4, the Cubs played the infield in and Dee Gordon slapped a double past Luis Valbuena at third, scoring Ethier.

The Dodgers stretched the lead to 6-4 when Yasiel Puig lined a single to center to score Gordon. Los Angeles added two insurance runs to make the final 8-4.

Paco Rodriguez, Pedro Baez, Brian Wilson and Kenley Jansen pitched in relief, shutting out Chicago over the final four frames.

With the win, the Dodgers picked up a half-game on idle San Francisco and lead the NL West by 2.5 games with nine to play.

Clayton Kershaw (19-3, 1.70) takes the hill today against Edwin Jackson (6-14, 6.09) as the lefty goes after his 20^th win.