LOS ANGELES — Eugenio Velez and Pablo Sandoval homered, pinch-hitter Fred Lewis doubled home the go-ahead run and the San Francisco Giants defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers 8-4 on Friday night.
The Giants’ 80th victory — their most since winning 91 in 2004 — moved them 2 1/2 games behind the Rockies in the NL wild-card race. The Rockies trail the first-place Dodgers by five games in the NL West.
Lewis doubled over left fielder Manny Ramirez’s head with two out in the sixth, scoring Travis Ishikawa, who doubled to right center and took third on a strikeout and fielder’s choice when Aaron Rowand was thrown out at first by catcher Russell Martin.
Velez doubled home Lewis as the ball again went over Ramirez’s head, giving the Giants a 6-4 lead.
San Francisco extended its lead to 4-1 in the third on Sandoval’s three-run homer off the first pitch from Vicente Padilla after singles by Velez and Freddy Sanchez.
Bob Howry (2-6) got two outs to finish the fifth inning.
Ramirez homered and drove in three runs as the Dodgers’ three-game winning streak ended.
Ramon Troncoso (4-4) allowed two runs and three hits in two-thirds of an inning.
Chad Billingsley made his first relief appearance of the season for the Dodgers, giving up a homer to Rowand in the eighth and an RBI single to Juan Uribe in the ninth.
Ramirez’s RBI double made it 1-1 in the first and his two-run homer in the fourth landed in the “Mannywood” seating section in left, with the Dodgers trailing 4-3.
The Dodgers’ Rafael Furcal homered off the first pitch he faced in the fifth to tie the game.
