Juan Uribe’s four hits lead Dodgers to 7-2 victory over Braves

They hit, they pitched, they played defense. They also ran the bases, but that’s another matter.

Mostly, though, the Dodgers opened their three-game series against a hot Atlanta Braves team on Monday by treating them just like all those struggling teams they’d been beating up on.

The Dodgers used seven effective innings from Chris Capuano and some timely hitting from the bottom of the order -- including four hits from struggling Juan Uribe -- to down the Braves, 7-2, before an announced Dodger Stadium crowd of 26,376.

The Dodgers (13-4) received two hits from Dee Gordon, Matt Kemp, James Loney and A.J. Ellis, three from Andre Ethier, and, of course, the four from Uribe to mount a 15-hit attack. This against an Atlanta team that had won 10 of its last 12 games.

The Dodgers started to work on Braves right-hander Jair Jurrjens in the first inning, Gordon lacing a single, stealing second and scoring on a hit by Andre Ethier.

Former Dodger David Ross evened the score when he hit a solo homer off Capuano in the second, but the Dodgers came back with two in the bottom of the inning to regain the lead with Uribe and Ellis each singling in a run.

The Dodgers pushed their lead to 5-1 with two more runs in the fourth inning. Ellis singled in another and Gordon hit a fly deep enough to left to score a second.

The Dodgers could have padded their lead even more in the fifth after Kemp and Ethier singled –- into a double play. Running from first on Ethier’s hit to left field, Kemp rounded third, and after something of a delayed move, broke for home. Where he was thrown out.

Ethier, seemingly caught by surprise at Kemp’s move, stopped after he rounded first, then broke for second, then tried to dive back to first, where he was tagged out for one odd double play.

Capuano gave up the one run on six hits and four walks in his seven innings, his longest outing of the season. He struck out five.

The Braves got one run back when Josh Lindblom gave up his first run of the season in eight appearances. Dan Uggla hit a solo homer off him in the eighth inning.

The Dodgers, however scored two more in the bottom of the inning when Uribe –- who came into the game batting .211 and left it hitting .286 –- hit a soft line-drive single with the bases loaded to score both runs.

It was the first time since Sept. 8, 2007, that Uribe had four hits in one game.

RELATED:

Inquiring Dodgers fans ask: Who is Mark Walter? [Web links]

For the Dodgers: It’s the last homestand of Frank McCourt

As everyone was saying, why can’t Andre Ethier hit right-handers?

Juan Uribe’s four hits lead Dodgers to 7-2 victory over Braves