Ramirez went 5-for-6 Thursday, hitting his 23rd homer with two outs in the 11th inning and helping the Marlins (48-44) win the series opener 5-4. Ramirez, who was 3-for-5 with another home run in Wednesday's 5-2 win in San Diego, is batting .421 (24-for-57) with six homers over his last 12 games.

Ramirez will start for the National League in Tuesday's All-Star game. His first career five-hit game boosted his season average nine points to .312.

"We were just trying to keep the ball down. But with a guy like that, if you just miss by a couple of inches, the ball is gone. And that's what happened," Los Angeles catcher Russell Martin said of Ramirez's homer on Thursday night.

However, Ramirez is batting only .219 with runners in scoring position. All five of his hits Thursday came without runners on second or third. He is batting .334 in non-RBI situations.

"I don't know why," Ramirez said. "I think I just try to do too much when I've got men on base, and I think I put more pressure on myself. So I've got to keep working on that and try to stay the same. I've got a lot to improve on."

The Marlins had dropped their previous four games against the Dodgers (45-47), including a three-game sweep in Miami from April 29-May 1. Ramirez went just 2-for-11 (.182) in that set, but is 26-for-69 (.377) in 17 career games against Los Angeles.

Florida remains tied with the New York Mets for second place in the NL East, 1 1/2 games behind Philadelphia. The Marlins, who have won four of five after opening their current 11-game road trip with three straight losses at Colorado, also broke a franchise record Thursday by homering for the 12th straight game.

With the loss, the Dodgers dropped a game behind NL West-leading Arizona. Russell Martin homered, but Los Angeles failed to score more than four runs for the fifth time in six games.

The Dodgers' offense will try to rebound against Chris Volstad (1-0, 0.00 ERA), who is making his first major league start. A first-round pick in 2005, the 21-year-old right-hander was called up from Double-A Carolina on Sunday and made his big league debut that night, throwing two scoreless innings of relief and earning a 10-5 win over the Rockies.

Volstad was 4-4 with a 3.36 ERA in 15 starts for Carolina.

Los Angeles' Eric Stults (2-1, 2.22) makes his fifth start of the season. The left-hander gave up two runs in four innings Sunday and was not economical, throwing 78 pitches in a game the Dodgers won 5-3 at San Francisco.

"I was battling myself today," he said. "I wasn't as sharp, but we got the win and that's all that counts."

Stults made his only previous appearance against Florida on July 8 of last season, allowing one run in three innings of relief without recording a decision.