Dodgers-Red Sox series opener has playoff feel

Published Aug. 23, 2013 10:34 p.m. ET

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LOS ANGELES — If this is how the playoffs feel, the Dodgers like it.

They had more than 50,000 at Dodger Stadium and the Boston Red Sox in the house. They had a pitchers' duel. They had just enough offense.

It was perfect.

"We got a full house today," shortstop Hanley Ramirez said. "It's unbelievable. When you're out there, the feeling of those cheers, it's loud. It gets you pumped."

How could it not?

The Dodgers returned home from a triumphant road trip and didn't skip a beat, beating the Red Sox 2-0 Friday night behind Ramirez's two-run home run and Ricky Nolasco's solid pitching.

Counting seems pointless at this point, but for the record, the Dodgers won their fourth game in a row and their 29th in 34 games since the All-Star break. The National League West race is essentially over: The Arizona Diamondbacks lost to the Philadelphia Phillies 4-3, giving the Dodgers a 10½-game division lead, their largest since the end of the 1977 season.

Nolasco, acquired in a July 6 trade with the Miami Marlins, threw a two-hit shutout over eight innings and is now 5-1 with a 2.53 ERA with the Dodgers. He retired the first two batters of the game, gave up a single to Dustin Pedroia, then set down 11 in a row until the fifth.

The Dodgers aren't exactly an explosive offensive team, but their pitching has been formidable enough to carry them. They've thrown 26 consecutive scoreless innings since Wednesday and now have 18 shutouts this season, most in the majors.

Red Sox starter John Lackey was almost as effective as Nolasco, retiring the first nine batters of the game before Carl Crawford's single leading off the fourth. Lackey got Yasiel Puig on a popup and retired Adrian Gonzalez on a line out to right before Ramirez drove a 1-and-2 pitch over the wall in right-center

"That's the kind of pitching you're going to see if you're going to be in a tough series," Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said. "It's what we're going to have to deal with."

Ramirez dealt with it. He just didn't know what it was.

Asked what kind of pitch he hit, he answered, somewhat sheeplishly, "I don't know. What I know is he was trying to quick pitch me. I made a good swing. I got lucky the ball went out.

"A guy like him, you've got to stay tough and keep fighting until the mistake happens. We knew it wasn't going to be easy."

It wasn't, but these are the kinds of games the Dodgers are certain to face in the postseason. And there's no reason to think they won't be there.

Call this a dress rehearsal. For Mattingly, it was never more real than when closer Kenley Jansen walked in from the bullpen to start the ninth.

The stadium crowd of 50,240 stood and cheered. It might as well have been October.

"Obviously we're in a situation where we want to win every night, and you get a good crowd and two good teams," Mattingly said. "When you get Kenley in the game, you kind of feel that. Every pitch is important."