Major League Baseball
BOXSCORE | RECAP
LA Dodgers 6, Atlanta 3
When: 8:10 PM ET, Monday, May 25, 2015
Where: Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles, California
Temperature: 68°
Umpires: Home - Mike Estabrook, 1B - Dana DeMuth, 2B - Paul Nauert, 3B - Ed Hickox
Attendance: 44680

LOS ANGELES -- Hitting is contagious, and so is the lack of it, Andre Ethier believes, so when the right fielder and his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates stumbled through an offensive outage, each of them tried to be the one to flip the switch.

"Really, we talked about it before the game," Ethier said. "I think part of this offensive struggle was guys reaching a little too far, overextending themselves and trying to do too much for that one at-bat. ... Tie game, you want to go up there and get on base and not be overly aggressive and get something over the middle of the plate to swing at. That's what I did. Put a good swing on it, and it happened to jump out."

Ethier hit the go-ahead home run in the eighth, and pinch hitter Alex Guerrero and shortstop Jimmy Rollins also followed with long balls in the inning, rallying the Dodgers to a 6-3 victory over the Atlanta Braves before 44,680 at Dodger Stadium on Monday.

Los Angeles (27-17) scored three runs only once in the previous eight games, losing five of those contests.

"It snowballs when the offense struggles like it has the last couple of days," said Ethier, who collected his 82nd career game-winning RBI, tying Pedro Guerrero for sixth in Los Angles history. "Because then you start reaching and start saying, 'I've got to do it if he doesn't,' so it just snowballs."

Braves reliever Nick Masset (0-1) was blitzed with all three long balls. Masset, who hadn't surrendered an earned run in six games, was tagged for four runs and three hits in one inning.

Atlanta (22-22) began a 10-game road swing with just its second loss in six games.

Dodgers left-hander Adam Liberatore (1-1) captured his first career major league win, working a 1-2-3 inning in the eighth. Closer Kenley Jansen recorded his fourth save by retiring all three batters he faced after Chris Hatcher gave up a run and failed to get an out in the ninth. For Jansen, it was his 14th consecutive scoreless appearance dating back to Sept. 5, 2014.

The Dodgers rallied to tie the game 2-2 in the seventh. First baseman Adrian Gonzalez's groundout to reliever Luis Avilan scored center fielder Joc Pederson, who went 3-for-5 with a double, to knot the score. Masset replaced Avilan and forced third baseman Justin Turner to ground out to short to end the inning, but the right-hander wasn't as fortunate in the eighth.

Braves rookie Williams Perez, in his second major league start, settled down after a rocky first inning. Perez allowed a run on seven hits, six of them singles, with seven strikeouts and a walk in six innings. He also hit a batter.

"Little shaky in the first inning," Atlanta manager Fredi Gonzalez said. "I think he had like 30 pitches in the first inning or thereabouts, but he bounced back and he did a nice job."

Dodgers starter Brett Anderson gave up two runs on seven hits with three strikeouts and two walks (one intentional) in seven innings. Anderson also threw a wild pitch. Anderson's back tightened a few innings before he exited, but the left-hander said he didn't believe it was serious.

Perez issued a bases-loaded walk to Ethier in the first for a 1-0 Dodgers lead.

In the fourth, Atlanta tied the score on a two-out RBI single by third baseman Pedro Ciriaco, bringing home left fielder Jonny Gomes.

First baseman Freddie Freeman put Atlanta up 2-1 in the fifth on a run-scoring single to right, scoring center fielder Cameron Maybin, who walked and advanced to second on a wild pitch.

Atlanta second baseman Jace Peterson robbed Gonzalez of a base hit with a diving grab in shallow right in the third for the defensive gem of the game.

NOTES: Retired Lt. Col. Robert Friend, a 95-year-old who is one of the last surviving members of the famed Tuskegee Airmen, was a guest of the Dodgers for pregame festivities on Memorial Day. Representatives from each branch of the Arme
Top Game Performances
Starting Pitchers
Atlanta   LA Dodgers
Williams Perez Player Brett Anderson
No Decision W/L No Decision
6.0 IP 7.0
7 Strikeouts 3
7 Hits 7
1.50 ERA 2.57
Hitting
Atlanta   LA Dodgers
Pedro Ciriaco Player Joc Pederson
2 Hits 3
1 RBI 0
0 HR 0
2 TB 4
.500 Avg .600
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Hits HR TB Avg LOB K RBI BB SB Errors
Atlanta 9 0 10 .265 11 4 3 2 0 0
LA Dodgers 11 3 21 .324 18 9 6 5 0 0