LOS ANGELES — While NL West rivals Colorado and San Francisco face off in a high-tension series up the California coast, the Los Angeles Dodgers are hoping to knock a few digits off their magic number while enjoying a slight letup in the September grind.

Andre Ethier hit a tiebreaking homer, Manny Ramirez had an early RBI double and the Dodgers opened their penultimate regular-season homestand with a 6-2 victory over the woeful Pittsburgh Pirates Monday night.

Jon Garland (10-11) persevered through six rocky innings to remain unbeaten since joining Los Angeles last month, winning the NL leaders' first of seven games in 15 days against the Pirates. In fact, 10 of Los Angeles' final 18 games are against last-place clubs Pittsburgh and Washington, putting the Dodgers in prime position for their race with St. Louis and Philadelphia for the NL's best record.

The Dodgers extended their division lead to four games and reduced their magic number for clinching a playoff spot to 11. The Giants, who beat the second-place Rockies 9-1 to open their important series in the wild-card race, visit Los Angeles this weekend — and the Dodgers hope their biggest rivals are properly tenderized.

"We knew coming in that this was a great opportunity for us to get some distance from Colorado and San Francisco, and let them beat up on each other a little bit," Ethier said. "You can't take an opportunity lightly just because of the name across their jerseys."

The Pirates ended a 13-game road losing streak with a win at Houston Sunday, but it's late in their 17th consecutive losing season. Ramon Vazquez had an RBI double for the Pirates, who have lost 15 of 17.

"You have to treat every game like it's important," Pittsburgh outfielder Andrew McCutchen said. "You can't just go through the motions, because that's not going to do anything for you. So just for yourself, you need to go out there and treat this game like there's a purpose behind it, and there is a purpose behind every single game."

Orlando Hudson had three hits and drove in two late runs as the Dodgers (86-59) got hits from all eight starting position players to move back to a season-high 27 games over .500 with their fifth victory in seven games.

Ethier put the Dodgers ahead 4-2 in the fifth with his 29th homer off rookie Daniel McCutchen, and Hudson added a long RBI double in the sixth. Hudson twice drove home Casey Blake, who reached base four times.