LOS ANGELES, Sept. 19 (UPI) -- Starting pitcher Russ Ortiz led off the sixth inning with his second home run of the season against the Los Angeles Dodgers Wednesday night as the San Francisco Giants opened some breathing room in the National League wild-card race with a 7-4 victory.
After San Francisco left the bases loaded in the second and third innings, Ortiz gave up an RBI single to Eric Karros in the bottom of the fifth that lifted Los Angeles into a 3-3 tie.
He wasted no time snapping the deadlock, hitting a 1-1 pitch from reliever Robert Ellis (0-1) into the second row of the left field seats for his fourth career home run. Ortiz became the first visiting pitcher to homer twice in the same season at Dodger Stadium.
Ortiz (13-10) righted himself on the mound as well and ended up allowing three runs and seven hits in six innings with two walks and seven strikeouts.
Felix Rodriguez and Tim Worrell each pitched a hitless inning before Robb Nen survived a shaky ninth as the Giants moved two games ahead of the Dodgers in the NL wild-card race with 10 to play.
Nen surrendered an RBI infield hit to Brian Jordan, bringing the dangerous Karros to the plate as the potential tying run. But Nen struck out Karros, who had been 9-for-20 lifetime against the hard-throwing righthander.
