LOS ANGELES — In this town, life is about the Big Stage and the Big Break.
This is the place where the stars come out at night, the town where dreams come true or die hard.
The Dodgers showed Sunday night just how much they love the spotlight. Hanley Ramirez has been waiting his entire baseball life to get to this position and he led the charge with a double in the third inning, a triple in the fourth and an RBI singe in the eighth as Don Mattingly’s club pulverized the Braves, 13-6, at raucous Dodger Stadium to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five NLDS.
The 13 runs equal a Dodgers postseason record, going all the way back to a 13-8 win over the Yankees on Oct., 5, 1956, a day Brooklyn first baseman Gil Hodges drove in four runs.
This is Hanley’s Team. Ramirez is the star who needed the L.A. spotlight, a town of stars.
“I just hope we can ride his coattails to the World Series,’’ said Carl Crawford, who hit a three-run home run in the second.
“This is the Hanley Show,’’ said ex-Mets pitcher, Chris Capuano, who pitched three scoreless innings in relief to pick up the win. “He’s one of the most talented hitters I’ve ever seen. He has a great attitude, always smiling, he’s huge for us.’’
“It has been unbelievable,’’ said Ramirez. “Last year [in October] my family told me I was going to be here and they were right.’’
A win Monday night and the Dodgers move onto the NLCS, putting Mattingly one series win away from his first World Series. After a dreadful loss in Atlanta on Friday night, the Dodgers had the chance to show they had Mattingly’s back, coming home and coming up big for their manager.
Ramirez, hitting a blistering .538 this series, is putting the Dodgers on his back. The two extra-base hits gave him six for the series, tying the Dodger record for most extra-base hits in a postseason series. Steve Garvey produced six extra-base hits in the 1978 NLCS.
Ramirez played in 1,095 major league games before seeing his first October action.
Ramirez has style. Not many major leaguers wear their jersey open like he does. When he stands at the plate, menacingly waving his bat, he looks like a cobra ready to strike. Ramirez knows a good thing, too, when he sees it. With the plodding Evan Gattis playing left field for the Braves, Ramirez is in hitting heaven aiming that way, total pull mode.
When the Dodgers snapped a 4-4 tie in the third inning, Ramirez started the rally with a double to left. The left-hand hitting Adrian Gonzalez then made like Tony Gwynn and shot a single to left to score Ramirez. Later in the inning, lefty Skip Shumaker, drilled an RBI single to left and the Dodgers were on their way.
It is Ramirez who is making this offense go.
Ramirez has battled shoulder problems and Mattingly held him out of games this year, telling him the postseason is where it’s at.
“I just kept telling him I want the whole world to see how good you are,’’ Mattingly said.
The world is seeing it all.
Ramirez hit .345 this season, playing in only 86 games because of injuries, but managed 20 home runs and 25 doubles. He came to the Dodgers in 2012 in a salary dump by the Marlins. He has been embraced by the Dodgers fans. He is the Dodgers MVP.
This was a night where each team started a rookie and the Braves Julio Teheran and the Dodgers Hyun-Jin Ryu were dreadful.
Capuano was making his first postseason appearance, too.
“We want to win it here Monday,’’ Capuano noted, adding the experience here is so much different than life with the Mets. “It’s so great to win,’’ he said.
“We have to finish what we started,’’ Ramirez said.
Hanley Ramirez is the lost star who has found a home in the city of stars.