A Top Rating for J.D. Power

Their surprising start having quickly become a distant memory, the Dodgers are focused on averting new depths.

They moved forward again Thursday night in a 6-4 victory against the Milwaukee Brewers, getting a big performance from J.D. Drew to help avoid another hard landing in front of an announced 32,004 at Dodger Stadium.

Drew hit his eighth and ninth home runs, including a two-run blast in the sixth inning against Milwaukee starter Ben Sheets to break a 3-3 tie. Jeff Kent also homered, his 10th, tying Milton Bradley for the team lead.

Giovanni Carrara (5-2) and Yhency Brazoban combined for three scoreless innings in relief, and Eric Gagne nailed down his fourth save, albeit with difficulty. Gagne struggled with his command, walking two and throwing two wild pitches in the ninth as the Brewers scored a run, but he struck out the side.

Swept by the Cubs in their last series, the Dodgers dropped to .500 for the first time since the second game of the season. But they didn’t go lower against the Brewers, and Manager Jim Tracy is eager for anything positive these days.

“It was a good bounce-back win for us,” Tracy said. “It was very good.”

Especially under the circumstances.

Things haven’t been going well at Chavez Ravine, so owner Frank McCourt addressed the team before the game.

It appeared the Dodgers (27-26) didn’t get the message early, falling behind, 3-0, in the fourth. However, they rebounded, in large part because of Drew, and pulled within 5 1/2 games of first-place San Diego in the National League West.

“You’ve got to file things away when you lose, remember what you did wrong and [learn from them later],” Drew said. “A lot of times it takes some adversity to build some chemistry. The big thing is to step back and breathe a little bit.”

Drew and Kent energized their teammates in the fourth against the Brewers (25-28), who have dropped five of six.

The players expected to power a Dodger turnaround delivered with two out, hitting back-to-back solo shots against Sheets (1-5), who struggled after retiring 11 in a row to open the game.

“He had as good a swing tonight as he’s had all year,” Tracy said of Drew. “When we trailed, 3-0, the back-to-back home runs by Drew and Kent were huge to get us back in the game.”

Said Drew: “The last week and a half, I just mixed some things up and it feels pretty good. I had two good swings and was fortunate to get the barrel on the ball.”

The Dodgers pulled even in the fifth, 3-3, when Jason Phillips doubled to drive in Jayson Werth, who had walked to open the inning and taken second on a Sheets wild pitch.

For the Dodgers, Gagne also was wild in the ninth.

“His command of his fastball was a little awry,” Tracy said of Gagne. “We’re still involved in a little bit of a buildup process with him.”

Gagne struck out pinch-hitters Dave Krynzel and Chris Magruder. Lyle Overbay singled to center and took second on defensive indifference without drawing a throw.

With Brady Clark batting, Overbay went to third on Gagne’s first wild pitch and scored on Gagne’s second wild pitch on ball four to Clark. Clark went to second on defensive indifference and Jeff Cirillo walked on a full count before Geoff Jenkins struck out to end the game.