Chris Capuano loses no-hitter in 7th, but Dodgers down Miami

It wasn’t perfect, but the Dodgers were hardly complaining. For a notoriously up-and-down team, Sunday afternoon’s 5-0 victory over the Marlins felt just fine.

With Chris Capuano throwing a no-hitter for 6 1/3 innings and Hanley Ramirez driving in the day’s first three runs, the Dodgers left Miami having enjoyed their first experience at Marlins Park.

Capuano was a model of efficiency, throwing just 71 pitches through six innings. His bid for the season’s sixth no-hitter was broken up by a clean Jose Reyes single up the middle with one out in the seventh.

Since starting the season 9-2 with a 2.60 earned-run average, Capuano had gone 1-5 with a 4.93 ERA. But Sunday he kept throwing strikes and effectively changing speeds, and the Marlins kept coming up empty.

He ended up surrendering two hits in eight innings, with 10 strikeouts and three walks. No Marlin advanced as far as second base.

Through seven innings, Capuano (11-8) had also scored the game’s lone run. In the third, singles by Capuano, Shane Victorino and Mark Ellis against Wade LeBlanc loaded the bases with no outs. After Matt Kemp struck out, Ramirez lifted a fly deep enough to left to sacrifice Capuano home.

It looked like the only run Capuano would need, but the Dodgers finally broke the game open with four runs in the eighth against ex-closer Heath Bell.

After Ellis singled for the third time, he was doubled to third by Kemp. With the infield playing up, Ramirez punched a two-run single and took second on the throw home. Then he ran through another Tim Wallach stop sign on an Andre Ethier single and scored.

Ramirez again heard boos at Marlin Park, but this time they were directed at Heath as he exited the game.

In his first trip to Miami since the Marlins traded him to the Dodgers on July 25, Ramirez went 6-for-12 with five RBIs in the three-game series.

Infielder Luis Cruz completed the scoring in the eighth with a run-scoring double.

Right-hander Jamey Wright completed the Dodgers’ sixth shutout of the season with a scoreless ninth.

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