Ice cold!

Los Angeles, Ca

When Andre Ethier stepped in the batters box to face Pirates relief pitcher Phil Dumatrait in the bottom of the 13th inning on Tuesday night, he led all major leaguers with five walk-off hits this season. Then he did it again! Driving a first pitch fastball deep to right field, and out of the park propelling the Dodgers to a 5-4 win, and helping to extend their lead in the West to 5 games over the recently struggling Rockies. With the late inning blast Ethier became the first Dodger left handed batter to reach the 30 HR mark since Shawn Greene did it in 2002, and the first to reach the milestone since Adrian Beltre knocked in 48 in 2004. As has usually been the case, Ethier wasn't alone. His outfield mate Matt Kemp drove Ethier home in the bottom of the ninth to tie the game at 3-3.

"You pinch yourself now," said Ethier, who now has four game winners via the longball. "To hit one in a season, to hit one in a couple of years is a great thing. To hit more than a couple? I don't know what's going on. But it's fun and I'm going to enjoy it while I'm doing it."

Ethier is batting .283 with an .896 OPS, 40 doubles, 98 RBIs, and a club high 30 HR.

Los Angeles is now 28 games over .500 (87-59) and have a 5 game lead over Colorado, while San Francisco lingers close-by at 7.5 games back. It seemingly took the Dodgers match-ups with their hated rivals (SF) and now a last place team (Pittsburgh) to get themselves on track, but they are looking like world beaters again. This team is starting to come together in a way that made them look unbeatable in the early days of the season, especially with the emergence of rising stars Kemp and Ethier carrying the team. Also looking bright for the boys in blue is a pitching staff that appears to be coming together in time for a post season push. Huroki Kuroda is back from the DL after taking a laser-like comebacker to the dome in early August, Randy Wolf is feeling better in the elbow area, newly acquired pitchers John Garland and Vicente Padilla are both pitching well and despite recent struggles, Dodgers Opening-Day and All-Star starter Chad Billingsley is feeling confident. Manager Joe Torre seems to be just as optimistic for his club. "As Yogi would say, 'It's déjà vu all over again,'" said Torre talking about Ethier. "You've seen him do it, you want to visualize it. And when he does it, it's just surreal. We talk about guys growing up and this kid is just growing as he goes, " Torre said. "He's been through some rough spots, he fights himself, he probably gets himself out a lot of times - but he's not afraid of the spotlight."