Ben Sheets Surrenders Four Home Runs In 6-2 Loss To Dodgers

Ben Sheets continued his skid on the mound as the Los Angeles Dodgers homered four times off the right-hander in its 6-1 win over Atlanta Saturday night.

The Braves plated a run in the first inning, but the frame has to be considered a missed opportunity as a whole. Harang walked Michael Bourn on four pitches to start the bottom of the inning, then Bourn came all the way around to score on a double to left from Martin Prado.

An intentional walk to Chipper Jones and a regular walk to Dan Uggla loaded the bases for David Ross with two outs, but the catcher struck on a 3-2 pitch to allow Harang to escape the jam.

Entering the second inning, Sheets had allowed just two home runs in his previous 39 innings pitched this season. Afterward, that number sat at five home runs in 40 innings. After getting Andre Ethier to ground out, Hanley Ramirez, James Loney, and Luis Cruz homered in back-to-back-to-back fashion on four pitches to give the Dodgers a 3-1 lead.

It was the first time Los Angeles had done that since they did it against John Maine in June of 2007. Also, it was only Loney's second homer since May 21st.

Atlanta got a runner in scoring position in both the third and fourth innings (two out doubles by Chipper and Paul Janish), but couldn't bring in either one to score.

Sheets retired 13 straight batters after allowing the trio of homers. That streak ended with a sixth inning walk of Matt Kemp, who Sheets did strike out twice tonight.

The walk to Kemp and a subsequent walk to Ethier put runners on first and second for Ramirez, who turned on a 90-mile per hour fastball for a line drive home run to left. Ramirez's second blast of the game and his 18th of the year made it a 6-1 game in favor of Los Angeles.

Sheets left after the sixth, with a line of 6 IP, 4 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 4 HR, 2 BB, 3 K.

Aaron Harang exited as well with two outs in the bottom of the seventh. He threw 115 pitches, and threw exactly one more strike than ball but made it work. Harang's final line was 6.2 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 5 BB, and 8 K.

The Braves loaded the bases in the eighth inning thanks to a trio of walks, but pinch-hitter Juan Francisco struck out on three pitches against the nasty Kenley Jansen.

Prado homered off Jansen in the ninth inning to make it a 6-2 game, but that's as close as Atlanta got.

Luis Avilan, Cristhian Martinez, and Jonny Venters pitched three scoreless innings of relief in a losing effort.