Don Mattingly and Dodgers get brief respite with 9-2 victory

A little shake-up, a benching, some direct comments and — presto! — the Dodgers were all better. For one game anyway, it seems Manager Don Mattingly did find that “Dodger Dust.”

After benching right-fielder Andre Ethier and lamenting the lack of competitiveness of his team before the game, Mattingly saw the Dodgers go out and bowl over the Brewers, winning 9-2 Wednesday to bring a moment’s calm to their growing storm.

Of course, it didn’t hurt that the Brewers started Wily Peralta (6.45 ERA) and the Dodgers started left-hander Hyun-Jin Ryu. Ryu allowed a sixth-inning solo home run to Ryan Braun and one more in the eighth, but otherwise held the Brewers in check during his 7 1/3 innings.

It also didn’t hurt Ryu (5-2) any that the Dodgers gave him a rare 7-0 lead to work with after three innings.

They didn’t exactly crush the ball throughout all this scoring, but they strung enough hits and Brewers’ miscues together in the second inning to push across five runs.

The Dodgers opened the scoring in the first when Carl Crawford singled, moved to second on a Mark Ellis groundout to second base and scored on a Matt Kemp single.

But they broke the game open with their outburst in the second.

They loaded the bases with no outs after singles by Nick Punto, Juan Uribe and Ramon Hernandez. After Ryu struck out attempting to bunt, Crawford singled in two. An Ellis base hit loaded the bases again before shortstop Jean Segura’s error on an Adrian Gonzalez bouncer scored one more.

With the bases still loaded, Kemp struck out, but Scott Van Slyke — playing for Ethier – and Punto each walked to force in two more. Which ended a troubling start for Peralta.

The Dodgers scored their final three runs of the inning without the benefit of a hit.

Hernandez, playing in his first game since May 7, hit his first home run of the season, a solo shot in the third. He started the day batting .045 and in an 0-for-17 slump.

The Dodgers added two more in the eighth when Kemp walked, stole second and scored on a Van Slyke double, his second of the game. A Punto single moved Van Slyke to third, and he scored soon after when Uribe bounced into a double play.

Ryu allowed the two runs on six hits and two walks. He struck out four.