Los Angeles Grab National Victory

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Matt Kemp scored a phantom run early, then hit a go-ahead homer in the ninth inning -- right after Washington rallied with a six-run eighth -- and the struggling Los Angeles Dodgers grabbed a 7-6 victory Wednesday night for a doubleheader split that prevented the Nationals from sewing up a playoff berth.

Kemp was credited with crossing home to give Los Angeles a 6-0 lead in the fourth, even though TV replays showed the inning's last out already had been recorded on third baseman Ryan Zimmerman's head-over-heels, reaching tag of runner Adrian Gonzalez.

That extra run loomed large when the hosts -- who had won the opener 3-1 thanks largely to Jordan Zimmermann's six innings of one-run baseball -- wound up sending 12 batters to the plate while scoring six runs in the eighth.

Michael Morse had a homer and a two-run single, and Washington chased Josh Beckett, who had allowed only two hits through seven innings.

The announced crowd of 26,931 was getting loud, perhaps anticipating a comeback and playoff-clinching victory, when Kemp drove an 0-2 pitch from closer Tyler Clippard (2-5) over the wall in center for his 19th homer.

Ronald Belisario (7-1) earned the win by getting the last two outs of the eighth inning.Brandon League picked up his third save with a hitless ninth.

Washington's victory in Game 1 was Los Angeles' ninth loss in 12 games -- and lowered the host's magic number for securing at least a wild-card spot to one. But the Nationals must wait at least another day to be certain of making the playoffs for the first time since moving from Montreal in 2005.

Beckett wound up allowing four runs -- three earned -- and five hits, with all the scoring in the eighth. By then, the Nationals had sort of indicated a willingness to concede defeat, subbing out starters Jayson Werth, Zimmerman and Adam LaRoche -- their Nos. 1-3-4 hitters.

While Beckett was terrific for a time, retiring 13 consecutive batters in one stretch, Nationals starter John Lannan struggled almost from the outset of Game 2.

Making his second start since taking over Stephen Strasburg's slot in the rotation, Lannan looked little like the guy who entered the night 3-0 with a 2.41 ERA in the majors in 2012 -- and much more like the guy who spent most of the year at Triple-A Syracuse.

He was charged with three runs in each of the third and fourth innings, hurt by singles, walks and a hit batter. In all, Lannan lasted only 3 2-3 innings, giving up eight hits. He departed with the bases loaded in the fourth, giving way to Chien-Ming Wang, who had been out with a hip injury and missed about 2½ months.

Wang's first pitch in a major league game since June 30 missed the mark completely. The wild pitch skipped past catcher Jesus Flores, allowing a run to score. The batter, Hanley Ramirez, eventually sent a grounder to Zimmerman, who flipped over and reached out to barely tag out Gonzalez. The umpires ruled that Kemp, who was running home from third on the play, crossed the plate in time to make it 6-0 -- but he had not.

Beckett faced the minimum number of hitters through five innings, allowing only one baserunner -- LaRoche singled leading off the second -- who was immediately erased by a double play.

Suddenly, though, the Nationals came through in the eighth. Morse led off with his 14th homer, and Steve Lombardozzi added a two-run shot. After Corey Brown reached on an error by Gonzalez, and pinch-hitter Mark DeRosa singled, Bryce Harper made it 6-4 with an infield single off reliever Randy Choate.

Belisario came in to face pinch-hitter Danny Espinosa, who played in Game 1 but was out of the lineup in Game 2 because of a recent left shoulder injury. Espinosa, who got a cortisone shot Monday so he could dull the pain of a bone bruise, smacked a single to left to load the bases.

One out later, Morse was up again, and he bounced a single past diving second baseman Mark Ellis to drive in two more runs and make it 6-all. After Belisario hit Ian Desmond with a pitch to load the bases again, he got Lombardozzi on a comebacker to end the inning.

Earlier in the day, as music blared in the Nationals' clubhouse between games, manager Davey Johnson insisted it didn't matter at all that his team had earned its 90th win and lowered its magic number for a wild-card berth.

"The only thing that's going to mean anything to me is when we clinch the pennant," Johnson said. "That's the only thing, the only number, I'm concerned with."

Nearing their first postseason appearance since arriving in Washington, the NL East-leading Nationals scratched out a victory in Game 1 thanks to two RBI groundouts and a sacrifice fly.

The Nationals' 90 victories are the most for a major league club in the nation's capital since 1933 -- which also was the last time a D.C. team played beyond the regular season.

"We're really not thinking about that. Definitely, I'm not, anyway," said Kurt Suzuki, who drove in Washington's first run with a fly ball in the second inning. "We're thinking about winning the division."

Pitching on seven days' rest because of Monday's scheduled day off and Tuesday's rainout, Zimmermann (11-8) kept putting runners on base and working around it. He allowed six hits, walked four and hit a batter, but Ramirez's RBI single in the third produced the Dodgers' only run.

"I was a little out of sync" in the early going Wednesday, Zimmermann said. "The last three innings, I felt much better and was able to control everything."

Four relievers followed him, combining to allow three hits across four shutout innings. Sean Burnett got out of a potentially troublesome spot in the seventh by striking out Gonzalez with runners on the corners, and Clippard pitched the ninth for his 32nd save.

Two of Washington's runs in Game 1 came off Aaron Harang (9-10), who threw 4 2-3 innings and gave up seven hits.

"He was pretty good," Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said. "He got some big outs to keep us in it."

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View from the Top - Tommy Lasorda

"The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a man's determination."

Tommy Lasorda

R.A. Dickey Knuckles Dodgers

R.A. Dickey made yet another strong bid to start for the National League in the All-Star game. He wants very much to get the nod -- not just for himself, but for a unique group he refers to as the "Jedi Council of Knuckleballers."

Dickey, who resurrected his career several years ago with the specialty pitch, allowed three hits over eight innings to become the majors' first 12-game winner and lead the New York Mets to a 9-0 victory over the Dodgers on Friday night.

Daniel Murphy homered and drove in five runs, helping send Los Angeles to its season-worst sixth straight loss.

"I think every little boy imagines playing in an All-Star game. So in that regard, it would be a real honor, obviously," Dickey said. "But more than that, I think it would give a real legitimacy to what I do as a knuckleball pitcher. I think there are camps of people out there who don't view it as a very legitimate thing.

"I'm certainly thankful for the people who have come before me and done what I've done, because it's allowed me to have the foundation to build off of to become who I am presently," Dickey added. "I mean, I tried to be Charlie Hough. I tried to be Phil Niekro and Tim Wakefield, and it didn't work. So when I started bringing in who I was uniquely with that pitch, things started to kind of turn the corner for me."

The Dodgers' only hit over the first 6 1/3 innings was by opposing pitcher Aaron Harang, a two-out single in the second that fell between left fielder Kirk Niewenhuis and center fielderAndres Torres after some miscommunication. A.J. Ellis singled in the seventh and Tony Gwynn Jr. doubled in the eighth.

"He was throwing it harder than I'm used to seeing him throw it," Gwynn said. "He threw a lot of strikes with it. And when it's in the zone and the ball's moving like that, it's tough to make contact. It cuts, sinks, it does something different every time he throws it."

Dickey offered a much more colourful description of his primary weapon.

"The metaphor I would give is that if a traditional knuckleball is a butterfly, mine is more like a butterfly on steroids," he said. "It's more like a mosquito or a hummingbird than a butterfly, because of the velocity. It comes in and breaks late at the plate. It darts more and it's in and out of the strike zone. Phil Niekro once told me I had an `angry' knuckleball."

Dickey(12-1), who had consecutive one-hitters against Tampa Bay and Baltimore during interleague play, returned to form five days after giving up five runs in six innings against the Yankees.

"I didn't have a terrible knuckleball last time, and I didn't approach this game any differently," he said. "It just came out of my hand nice tonight, and I was able to repeat my mechanics and stay in the strike zone."

It was the fifth scoreless outing in a span of seven starts for the 37-year-old right-hander, who struck out 10 and walked one while establishing a career high for wins. He threw no more than 17 pitches in any inning and finished with 116.

Dickey has won 10 straight decisions in 13 starts with a 1.51 ERA since April 18. He finished June 5-0 with a 0.93 ERA.

In the second season of a two-year, $7.8 million contract, Dickey is the first starting pitcher in Mets history to begin a season 12-1 and the first to post at least 12 victories before the All-Star break since Bobby Jones in 1997. The franchise record for wins before the break is held by Tom Seaver, who was 14-5 in 1969 and 1970 going into the midsummer classic.

"One thing I've always tried to do for my team and for myself is to be a consistent, trustworthy product," Dickey said. "And the more often I can do that, the better."

The injury-depleted Dodgers, missing Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier and Mark Ellis, were shut out for the fifth time in 11 games -- including all three at San Francisco -- and have produced only two runs in their last 48 innings. They are in a 1-10 tailspin that has seen them go from five games ahead in the NL West to a game behind surging San Francisco. Los Angeles led by as many as 7 1/2 games on May 27.

Harang (5-5) gave up five runs and seven hits in 5 2/3 innings. Three of the hits were by Ruben Tejada, who was plunked by the right-hander's 116th and final pitch. Tejada also had an RBI single to cap a four-run seventh against rookie Shawn Tolleson.

Dickey retaliated by hitting Dee Gordon on the rear end with two outs in the sixth, eliciting a warning from plate umpire Todd Tichenor to Dickey and both dugouts. Gordon, who is generously listed at 160 pounds in the Dodgers media guide, was the fourth batter Dickey has hit this season.

Murphy, who struck out with the bases loaded to end the first, came through in the fifth with a two-run double and added a three-run homer in the seventh -- just his third of the season. The other two came on Wednesday in a 17-1 rout of the Cubs at Wrigley field, ending a home run drought of 352 consecutive at-bats by Murphy.

Harang Dodgers Work Rewarded

After the solid eight-inning stint Aaron Harang gave the Los Angeles Dodgers, his teammates wanted to see him get rewarded with a victory after he was lifted for a pinch-hitter with the score tied.

Up stepped Tony Gwynn Jr., who came through with an RBI single off Matt Belisle to help the Dodgers beat the Colorado Rockies 2-1 on Saturday night and improved the best record in the majors to 22-11.

James Loney led off the eighth with an infield single against reliever Josh Outman (0-1), advanced on A.J. Ellis' sacrifice bunt and came home when Gwynn lined an 0-2 pitch to left field.

"I struggled against Belisle in the past," Gwynn said. "He's a short-armer, and the ball gets on you real quick, so I just tried to keep my swing short with two strikes and stay away from anything in the dirt. I was actually able to take a pretty good swing. Looking at it on tape, it looked like he threw the ball where he wanted to -- about chest-high -- and I was just able to get enough barrel on it."

Harang (2-2) allowed a run on four hits and escaped a bases-loaded jam in the third, helping send the Rockies to their seventh loss in eight games and dropping them a season-worst 8 1-2 games behind the Dodgers in the NL West.

Harang has 15 strikeouts in 31 2/3 innings over his last five starts, after fanning a career-high 13 against San Diego on April 13 -- including a franchise-record nine straight. But he realizes he'll be more successful getting groundballs and keeping his pitch count down.

"I felt good. I felt like I was locating the ball well and I was able to keep them off-balance," Harang said. "The defense was there to back me up, and these guys battled out there to the last inning and got us the victory."

The 6-foot-7 right-hander was 0-3 with an 8.64 ERA in his previous five starts against Colorado since August 22, 2008, when he pitched six scoreless innings for Cincinnati in an 8-5 win at Coors Field.

Kenley Jansen got three outs for his third save in four attempts. It was the hard-throwing right-hander's first save opportunity since manager Don Mattingly took Javy Guerra out of the closer's role last Monday and gave it to his setup man.

"It's nice to be able to see him go in there and be able to shut the door," Harang said. "He's got good stuff, and he's only going to get better with the more confidence he gets in that role."

Harang and Colorado right-hander Juan Nicasio dueled to a 1-1 tie through seven innings in a rematch of their April 30 encounter at Coors Field, when Nicasio threw a career-high 115 pitches over six innings and allowed two runs in a 6-2 win. Nicasio gave up five hits, struck out nine and walked none.

"Juan Nicasio was great," manager Jim Tracy said. "He pounded the strike zone with his fastball. And between his slider and change-up, he had enough going on to keep them at bay the entire time he was out there."

Nicasio, aided by a double play in the first, faced the minimum number of batters through four. But Andre Ethier led off the fifth with a double and scored on a one-out broken-bat bloop single to center by Juan Uribe -- one pitch after catcher Willin Rosario went to the mound to discuss with Nicasio what he should throw on the 0-2 count.

Rockies center fielder Tyler Colvin, making his ninth start of the season because Tracy wanted to get his bat in the lineup, tied it in the seventh with his third homer -- sending a 2-0 delivery deep into the right-field pavilion on a four-seamer that Harang tried to get inside on him but ran back over the plate. Right before the home run, Michael Cuddy ergrounded into a double play following a leadoff single by Todd Helton.

The Rockies wasted a great scoring chance in the third after Rosario led off with a double over the head of center fielder Matt Kemp. Rosario advanced on Nicasio's sacrifice, but was cut down at the plate after first baseman Loney made a diving stop on Marco Scutaro's grounder in the hole and threw a perfect strike to Ellis.

Jonathan Herrera followed with a double, but Troy Tulowitzki flied out with the bases loaded on a fastball down and away after an intentional walk to Carlos Gonzalez. Tulowitzki is 5 for 28 with runners in scoring position, after batting .309 with 144 RBIs in those situations over the previous two seasons. 

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LA Dodgers Now Magic

Magic Johnson Dodgers deal completed

Have LA Dodgers Found Magic

A group that includes former Los Angeles Lakers star Magic Johnson and longtime baseball executive Stan Kasten agreed Tuesday night to buy the Los Angeles Dodgers from Frank McCourt for a record $2 billion.

The price would shatter the mark for a North American sports franchise, topping the $1.1 billion Stephen Ross paid for the NFL's Miami Dolphins in 2009.

Mark Walter, chief executive officer of the financial services firm Guggenheim Partners, would become the controlling owner.

The deal, revealed about five hours after Major League Baseball owners approved three finalists for an intended auction, is one of several steps toward a sale of the team by the end of April. It is subject to approval in federal bankruptcy court.

"I am thrilled to be part of the historic Dodger franchise and intend to build on the fantastic foundation laid by Frank McCourt as we drive the Dodgers back to the front page of the sports section in our wonderful community of Los Angeles," Johnson said in a statement.

As part of the agreement, the Dodgers said McCourt and "certain affiliates of the purchasers" would acquire the land surrounding Dodger Stadium, including its parking lots, for $150 million.

"If they invested that much money, I'm sure they'll invest to get us a winner," said Tommy Lasorda, the Dodgers' retired Hall of Fame manager. "I wish them all the luck, and I admire them. I know both of them. I know Magic from the day he came into Los Angeles as basketball player for the Lakers."

The acquiring group, called Guggenheim Baseball Management, has several other investors, among them Mandalay Entertainment chief executive Peter Guber, Guggenheim Partners president Todd Boehly and Bobby Patton, who operates oil and gas properties among his investments. Kasten is the former president of the Atlanta Braves and Washington Nationals.

"I am truly honored to have partnered with such talented individuals and to be associated with the Dodgers organization," Walter said. "We look forward to building upon the legacy of the Dodgers and providing long-term stability to one of the most revered franchises in baseball.

The 52-year-old Johnson played 13 seasons for the Lakers, winning five NBA championships and three MVP awards.

He retired from the NBA in 1991 after being diagnosed with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. He briefly came out of retirement in 1995-96 season and did a short stint coaching the Lakers. Since leaving basketball, he has been hugely successful in business, investing in movie theaters, a production company and restaurants.

He has also been activist in the fight against HIV.

McCourt paid $430 million in 2004 to buy the team, Dodger Stadium and 250 acres of land that include the parking lots, from the Fox division of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., a sale that left the team with about $50 million in cash at the time. The team's debt stood at $579 million as of January, according to a court filing, so McCourt stands to make hundreds of millions of dollars even after a $131 million divorce payment to former wife Jamie, taxes and legal and banking fees.

Kasten is expected to wind up as the team's top day-to-day executive.

The other two finalists were:

• Stan Kroenke, whose family properties own the NFL's St. Louis Rams, the NBA's Denver Nuggets, the NHL's Colorado Avalanche and Major League Soccer's Colorado Rapids, and who is majority shareholder of Arsenal in the English Premier League.

• Steven Cohen, founder of the hedge fund SAC Capital Advisors and a new limited partner of the New York Mets; biotechnology entrepreneur Patrick Soon-Shiong; and agent Arn Tellem of Wasserman Media Group.

It remains to be seen whether Major League Baseball will challenge the deal in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware, where the case is before Judge Kevin Gross.

Under an agreement reached by MLB and McCourt in November, a private auction was to be held among the finalists and McCourt was to select the winner by Sunday. The sales agreement is to be submitted to the bankruptcy court by April 6, ahead of a hearing seven days later, and the sale completed by April 30, the day McCourt is to make the divorce settlement payment.

"This agreement with Guggenheim reflects both the strength and future potential of the Los Angeles Dodgers, and assures that the Dodgers will have new ownership with deep local roots, which bodes well for the Dodgers, its fans and the Los Angeles community," McCourt said in a statement.

The acquiring group would gain the ability to sell the Dodgers' local broadcasting rights starting with games in 2014. The Guggenheim group likely would use money gained from the sale -- or form the team's own network with outside investment -- and use those funds to pay down the acquisition debt.

"The amount of leverage is a big question," said Marc Ganis, president of the Chicago-based consulting firm Sportscorp, which is not involved. "The likely scenario is that they have a broadcasting deal in mind so that they pay up now and pay themselves down from a big broadcasting up-front payment.

"The problem with this strategy is that the more paid upfront by the broadcast deal, the less money is available for team operations. The more debt they take on, the more debt service is required, the less money that's available for team operations. With the only beneficiary being the man walking out the door. A challenging result that baseball tried to avoid."

The current record for a baseball franchise is the $845 million paid by the Ricketts family for the Chicago Cubs in 2009.

Los Angeles filed for bankruptcy protection in late June, just days before the team was expected to miss payroll. The filing came after baseball commissioner Bud Selig refused to approve a 17-year agreement between the Dodgers' and Fox's Prime Ticket subsidiary that would have been worth $2 billion or more. MLB feared McCourt would use about half of an intended $385 million cash advance to fund his divorce.

Los Angeles finished third in the NL West at 82-79, had just three sellouts and fell short of 3 million in home attendance in a full season for the first time since 1992.There was some concern among MLB officials about the financing of the Walter bid because some of the money was coming from insurance companies that are owned by Guggenheim. A person familiar with the baseball owners' teleconference Tuesday said several team owners voiced that during the call. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because MLB did not make any announcements.

"The problem there is a fundamental problem as you go into an auction, and that is the absolute reliance on other people's money," Ganis said. "It means a lot of regulators. It means either shareholders or, depending on which insurance companies it's coming from, the insured themselves."