Dodgers 7, Cubs 4

Grady wouldn’t admit it, but this was easily the Dodgers’ biggest win of the year. Broxton gave up a three-run jack to Soriano, his second of the game, bottom 7 to turn a 2-1 lead into a 4-2 deficit. But Kemp went yard off Howry in the eighth to cut it to one, and Ryan Dempster imploded in the ninth, giving up a windblown, three-run homer into the basket in left-center to Andre Ethier, who was pinch hitting for Andy LaRoche. Dodgers take three of four from the Cubbies, who were flying high before this series. This 10-game trip. which had looked sort of forboding since the schedule was released last winter, well, the Dodgers are now 4-3 on it, with three games this weekend by the Bay. This might end up being not the trip that did in the Dodgers, but the trip that finally got them started. They improve to 74-66 and gain a half-game on everybody because nobody else was playing. Dodgers are now 3 1/2 behind the Snakes, 2 1/2 behind the Pods in the NL West and in second place alone in the wild card, again 2 1/2 behind the Pods.