PITTSBURGH — Hiroki Kuroda feels it on the mound, James Loney senses it in the batter's box. These aren't the Los Angeles Dodgers of April and May, June and July.

What must worry the other NL playoff contenders is these may be the Dodgers of October.

Kuroda allowed three hits over seven shutout innings for his first road win in more than two months and Manny Ramirez had three more hits, leading the surging Dodgers past the Pittsburgh Pirates 8-2 on Monday night.

With Juan Pierre homering for the first time in nearly two years, the Dodgers rebounded from a 1-0, 10-inning loss at Colorado on Sunday for their 13th victory in 15 games — a surge that has given them a 4Z\x-game lead in the NL West over Arizona. The Diamondbacks, who beat the Giants, led by 4Z\x games on Aug. 29.

"It's great for us," Loney said. "We've been playing consistent with timely hits and good pitching and that's where we want to be."

The Pirates swept three games from St. Louis over the weekend, but did nothing with Kuroda, who hadn't won in six road starts since beating Houston 4-1 on July 2. Kuroda (9-10) permitted one runner to reach third and yielded only one hit, Nyjer Morgan's double in the sixth, after the first.

"He was on and our bats weren't clicking," Morgan said. "He kept us off balance. He had a lot of movement on his pitches."

Ramirez has played the biggest role in the turnaround, hitting .395 with 14 homers and 43 RBI in 42 games since being dealt by the Red Sox to the Dodgers on July 31 — a three-team deal completed only after the Pirates agreed to trade Jason Bay to Boston.

Ramirez doubled in the Dodgers' first two runs in a three-run third against Ross Ohlendorf (0-2), with the other run scoring on catcher Ryan Doumit's throwing error. Ramirez singled off the right-field wall an inning later — the two runners held up to see if the ball would be caught — and Loney had a two-run single.