Dodgers get out of a jam

MILWAUKEE —  If the Dodgers somehow overcome long odds and reach the playoffs, they might well point to the fifth inning of Thursday’s 7-1 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers as a turning point.

Clinging to a 2-1 lead, Dodgers starter Carlos Monasterios walked Brewers pitcher Yovani Gallardo and hit the next two batters to load the bases with one out.

It had all the makings of a big Brewers inning that could have dealt the Dodgers a loss and stalled their recent momentum toward earning a National League wild-card berth.

Instead, relievers Ronald Belisario and George Sherrill stopped Milwaukee from scoring and the Dodgers, using six pitchers, went on to defeat the Brewers and sweep their three-game series.

The win lifted the Dodgers to within five games of the idle San Francisco Giants in the wild-card race as the Dodgers flew to Denver to open a three-game series with the Colorado Rockies on Friday. The Dodgers had been eight games back early this week.

“We’ve still got a ways to go, but we’re not counting ourselves out,” said Casey Blake, whose two-run homer in the sixth inning provided a cushion. “We just need to keep playing like we did the last three games.”

In addition to Blake, Scott Podsednik had three hits and scored twice; reserve catcher Brad Ausmus collected three hits, and reserve outfielder Reed Johnson hit a run-scoring single after replacing Andre Ethier, who was ejected for arguing a called third strike.

Gallardo (11-6), perhaps the Brewers’ best starter, struck out 10 Dodgers but gave up six runs and eight hits in 61/3 innings.

The rookie Monasterios, meanwhile, had given up only two hits through 41/3 innings -- including a solo home run by Prince Fielder in the fourth inning -- when he walked Gallardo and hit Rickie Weeks and Corey Hart.

After hitting Gallardo, “I lost a little bit of rhythm,” Monasterios said through an interpreter.

Manager Joe Torre pulled Monasterios and repeated a maneuver he’d used successfully the prior night, bringing the right-handed Belisario in to face Ryan Braun and then the left-handed Sherrill to face Fielder. Belisario struck out Braun, Fielder grounded out, the Dodgers escaped unharmed and Belisario picked up the victory.

“That was the huge part of the game for me,” Torre said. “They get a lead there, you don’t know where this game goes.”

The Dodgers wasted no time attacking Gallardo when Podsednik led off the game with a single, moved to third base on Ryan Theriot’s ground-rule double and scored when Matt Kemp grounded out.

The Brewers pulled even in the fourth inning on Fielder’s home run to right field --Milwaukee’s second and last hit of the game -- and later that inning Kemp made a spectacular diving catch of a shallow fly hit to center field by Alcides Escobar for the third out.

The Dodgers took a 2-1 lead in the fifth inning when Ausmus singled, reached second base on Monasterios’ sacrifice bunt and scored when Podsednik singled off the glove of Weeks, the Brewers’ second baseman.

“We’ve been saying all along, first let’s try to put something together and then we’ll see where we are” in the standings, Torre said. “If this doesn’t give us confidence, I don’t know what the heck is going to do it.”

james.peltz@latimes.com