PHILADELPHIA — Ryne Sandberg‘s first win as a major league manager came with some help from the opposition.
Carlos Ruiz had four hits, and the Philadelphia Phillies benefited from two ninth-inning errors by shortstop Hanley Ramirez to beat the Dodgers 3-2 on Sunday, giving Sandberg his first victory and ending Los Angeles’ 10-game winning streak.
Sandberg took over as interim manager Friday when Charlie Manuel, the winningest skipper in club history, was fired.
“We capitalized on a couple of miscues by the Dodgers,” said Sandberg, who is going to save the lineup card. “We’ll take it right now and hopefully build from that. Hopefully it will give us momentum for the rest of the homestand.”
Philadelphia certainly could use some.
Shut out by the Dodgers in each of Sandberg’s first two games, the Phillies snapped a four-game skid and won for only the fifth time in 26 games.
Darin Ruf homered to begin Philadelphia’s comeback from a two-run deficit.
“It’s nice to get a win, in general,” Ruf said. “Hopefully we can get rolling and get [Sandberg] a few more as well.”
Andre Ethier went deep for the Dodgers, who have lost just nine of their last 51.
Brandon League (6-4) relieved Paco Rodriguez with one out in the ninth and nobody on. After Casper Wells reached on Ramirez’s throwing error, Ruiz singled to right to put runners on first and third.
League intentionally walked pinch-hitter Jimmy Rollins to load the bases for pinch-hitter Michael Young. He grounded sharply to Ramirez, who bobbled a potential double play ball as Wells scored to end the Dodgers’ streak of 12 straight victories in one-run games.
“It’s tough to explain,” Ramirez said. “We had Young running. We would’ve turned [a double play]. We don’t think about negative stuff. We just move on. It’s definitely tough, but games like this will happen.”
It was just the second loss in the last 21 road games for the Dodgers.
“I really don’t think we did enough to win,” manager Don Mattingly said. “We only scored two runs and we couldn’t add on. Obviously you don’t want to make errors. If we make plays in the ninth, the game is still going. But we had nine innings to get an extra run.
“After we get dressed and start on our way home, we’ll digest that we won the first two and had an opportunity to win this one. It’s a tough way to lose, but in a sense we didn’t do enough to tack on runs.”
Jonathan Papelbon (3-1) pitched a scoreless ninth, striking out two.
The Phillies snapped a scoreless streak of 21 2/3 innings when Ruf homered with two outs in the fourth to pull them to 2-1. Philadelphia tied it in the sixth on Cody Asche‘s groundout.
Los Angeles jumped out to a 1-0 lead on Ethier’s homer leading off the second and added a run in the fourth on Jerry Hairston Jr.’s RBI single.
But the Dodgers didn’t have much more success against Cole Hamels, who left after allowing seven hits in seven innings with eight strikeouts and no walks.
The left-hander has yielded two earned runs or less in eight of his last nine starts but continued his hard-luck trend of 2013. It was the ninth no-decision for Hamels, who entered with the fifth-worst run support (3.33 runs per game) among starters in the majors.
“It’s unfortunate I wasn’t able to do it earlier,” Hamels said of his recent form. “It’s kind of what I expect of myself. You have to keep pushing yourself, preparing for the next game and expect to do things well.
“This is a good start, getting a win — especially against a great team,” he added. “It gives us a place to start from.”
Ricky Nolasco had won his last three starts for the Dodgers but took a no-decision after lasting six innings. He allowed two runs on five hits with five strikeouts and one walk.
“We played well all day,” Nolasco said, before addressing the winning streak. “All good things come to an end. We’ll try and start another one tomorrow.”
