Hanley's miscues sting Dodgers as streak ends

PHILADELPHIA -- Back when the Dodgers had weaknesses, Hanley Ramirez's defense at shortstop was considered a potentially glaring one. Then he returned from a pair of injuries and not only showed up with a hot bat, but a sure glove.

And then came Sunday, when Ramirez was charged with a pair of ninth-inning errors that resulted in a 3-2 Phillies walk-off win that snapped the Dodgers' 10-game win streak, the club's longest since 2006.

"Every good thing has to come to an end," said starting pitcher Ricky Nolasco. "I hope we start a longer one tomorrow."

The loss was only the Dodgers' fourth in 29 games since the All-Star break, and second in the last 21 on the road.

"I made a couple mistakes and it cost us the game," said Ramirez, facing the media with no hesitation. "Games like this are going to happen. I'll make those plays tomorrow. It's a tough loss today, definitely tough, but sometimes you don't want to get that in your head. We've got a long way to go. I'm going to make errors. The ball came up and bounced out of my glove at the last second."

Ramirez had eight errors in 58 games before Sunday, but his .363 batting average and 1.060 OPS had pretty much papered over any flaws. Sort of the way Yasiel Puig's .358 average and .986 OPS has minimized his series of rookie mistakes that continued Sunday.

Puig's slipups didn't cost any runs and manager Don Mattingly defended Ramirez by indicting his entire offense, which mainly consisted of Andre Ethier homering and scoring twice.

"We didn't really give the game away. I don't feel we did enough to win," said Mattingly, who fielded a Sunday lineup against Philly lefty Cole Hamels without Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, Juan Uribe or A.J. Ellis.

"Obviously, you don't want to make errors, and we're not trying to. At the end of the day, we make those plays in the ninth and the game is still going. After the fourth, we weren't able to score again."

The Dodgers staked Nolasco to a 2-0 lead in the fourth for his duel with Hamels, but Darin Ruf homered in the home half of the frame for Philly's first run of the series. Then a hit batter and a walk in the fifth led to the tying run when the Dodgers couldn't turn a double play on a Cody Asche bouncer.

They needed to turn another double play in the ninth to force extra innings. With one out and nobody on, Brandon League took over for Paco Rodriguez to face Casper Wells, whose grounder was backhanded by Ramirez. But Ramirez's hurried throw was on a bounce and Jerry Hairston, filling in at first base for Gonzalez, couldn't handle the short hop as Ramirez received the first error.

Carlos Ruiz then singled to right-center (his fourth hit), Wells taking third. Pinch-hitter Jimmy Rollins was walked intentionally to load the bases.

Michael Young, batting for Michael Martinez, hit a potential inning-ending double-play grounder to Ramirez, who went down to a knee but the ball hopped up and rattled around Ramirez's glove, dropping to the ground. He tried to make a meaningless throw to first as Wells scored the winning run.

"We've got Young running. Definitely, we're going to turn it," said Ramirez. "I anticipate everything. I know who's running."

Coming into the game, Young had grounded into the fourth-most double plays in the league with 17.

"We had at least a chance [to turn it]," Mattingly said of the medium-paced ground ball. "He's hit into a few of them."

Ethier's home run, his ninth of the year and second in the past week, came off the first pitch from Hamels leading off the second inning. It was his third homer of the year off a left-hander.

Ethier was at it again in the fourth inning, singling on a 3-2 pitch, taking second on a wild pitch and scoring on a two-out single by Hairston.

The Phillies finally broke through against Dodgers pitching with two outs in the fourth inning on Ruf's homer. It snapped a streak of 30 consecutive scoreless innings for Los Angeles hurlers and 21 scoreless innings for Phillies hitters.

Puig continued his undisciplined play in the sixth inning, getting picked off and tagged in a rundown trying to steal second, then again missing the cutoff man to compound a jam in the bottom of the inning.

The throw through to third base trying for Chase Utley allowed Domonic Brown to take second base after his single. Nolasco walked Ruf to load the bases and the Phillies tied the game at 2-2 when the Dodgers couldn't turn a double play on Asche's force-out grounder.

"We knew what we were getting into when we called him up," said Mattingly. "You can't sit guys down every time they make a mistake."

Meanwhile, the Dodgers' offense didn't get a baserunner into scoring position over the final five innings. It's only the second time that's happened since July 30.

"We didn't put ourselves in position to win," said Mattingly. "We just put ourselves in position to lose an extended game."

It was the first managerial win for Ryne Sandberg, who replaced Charlie Manuel Friday.

"Trying to start over, turn the page and get a new season under way, I guess is what we've been trying to do the past couple of days," said Hamels. "It starts with getting a win, especially a walk-off against such a good team like the Dodgers. It gives us a place to start from, and try to play for something, finish up strong."