Martin, Dodgers drub Cubs in Game 2

Much like Jason Bay did on Wednesday night, fellow Canadian Russell Martin came through for the Los Angeles Dodgers on Thursday night.

Martin capped a five-run outburst in the second inning with a three-run double as the Dodgers demolished the hometown Chicago Cubs 10-3 in Game 2 of their National League Division Series at Wrigley Field.

"We're playing with a lot of confidence right now," Dodgers manager Joe Torre said.

Like Bay's decisive two-run home run for the Boston Red Sox the night before, Martin's clutch hit broke open a tight contest and helped Los Angeles take a commanding 2-0 lead in the best-of-five series.

Game 3 goes Saturday night at Dodger Stadium (7:30 p.m. PT).

"We have still got one more game to win," Dodgers left-fielder Manny Ramirez said. "We're not there yet."

Ramirez homered and drove in two runs, while Rafael Furcal went 3-for-6 with two runs batted in.

Blake DeWitt, Matt Kemp and Casey Blake had the other RBIs as Los Angeles staked starting pitcher Chad Billingsley to a 8-0 lead.

"It allowed me to be more aggressive," said Billingsley, who yielded one run and five hits with one walk and seven strikeouts in 6 2/3 innings. 

"I didn't have to be too fine and I was still attacking hitters and keeping them off balance. That was a big thing for me, to get the off-speed across."  

Billingsley (1-0) led the Dodgers with 16 wins and 201 strikeouts in the regular season.

"I was very impressed by Chad," Torre said. "He goes out there and controls the game."

Chicago starter Carlos Zambrano lasted 6 1/3 innings, permitting seven runs on six hits and two walks with seven strikeouts.

Zambrano has struggled mightily since he no-hit the Houston Astros on Sept. 14, posting an unsightly 18.47 earned-run average in his last two regular-season starts. 

Zambrano (0-1) retired the Dodgers in order in the top of the first inning, but they raked him in the second for five runs — four of them unearned because of shoddy fielding.

Chicago committed four errors — one by each infielder, tying an NLDS record.

"We talked about being a good defensive team and certainly tonight we weren't," Cubs manager Lou Piniella said. "It wasn't fun to watch, I'll tell you that."

'It opened things up for a big inning'

Andre Ethier led off with a single, advanced to third base on James Loney's single and later scored on DeWitt's RBI groundout that second baseman Mark DeRosa bobbled. 

The mistakes kept coming as first baseman Derrek Lee, a three-time Gold Glover, booted Casey Blake's grounder, and Furcal caught the entire infield off guard with a perfect-placed bunt that went for a run-scoring single.

"It surprised all of us here," Torre said. "But it opened things up for a big inning."

It also kept the bases loaded for Martin, who cleared them with a three-run double to the wall in left-centre field that silenced the crowd of 42,136 on hand at Wrigley Field.

"We took advantage of some of their mistakes and that was really big for us to do," Billingsley said.

Ramirez increased it to 6-0 in the fifth inning with a solo home run to centre field off Zambrano. 

"I got a good pitch and I drove it," Ramirez said.

In the seventh, Zambrano walked Ramirez and was relieved by Neal Cotts, who later surrendered an RBI double to Kemp.

Chicago finally solved Billingsley in the bottom of the seventh inning, scratching across a run on back-to-back doubles from DeRosa and Jim Edmonds.

But the Dodgers promptly replied with two runs in the eighth.

Blake singled off reliever Carlos Marmol to open the inning, moved to second on Angel Berroa's sacrifice bunt and scored on Furcal's RBI single to right.

After Martin struck out, Furcal scampered home to make it 9-1 on a soft fly ball from Ramirez that fell for a single between Edmonds and Kosuke Fukodome. 

With Kerry Wood on the mound for the Cubs in the ninth, pinch-hitter Juan Pierre reached safely and sped to second on shortstop Ryan Theriot's throwing error before scoring on Blake's RBI single to centre.

But Chicago refused to go quietly, rallying for a pair of runs off relievers Takashi Saito and Jonathan Broxton in the bottom of the inning.

Lee hit a ground-rule double and Aramis Ramirez singled to bring up DeRosa, who delivered both runners with an RBI double to right.

"It wasn't good baseball," Piniella said. "In fact, the last two days, that is probably been the two worst games we have played all year."