Dodgers Get Key Hits and Crucial Win in Game 3 LOS ANGELES - With each random movement - lifting his left arm, breaking into a trot, laughing at a joke - a sharp pain jolted through Hanley Ramirez's rib cage. Swinging a bat or, worse, stopping a swing felt as if a knife were working into the crack in his eighth rib. It was the type of pain that would have kept Ramirez on the bench any night during the regular season. But this was the postseason, and many were counting on his presence: a city eager for the Dodgers to reach their first World Series in a quarter-century, a sold-out stadium and a clubhouse full of teammates. If that responsibility were not enough, all he had to do was recall those years in South Florida, all the meaningless games played in front of empty seats on teams going nowhere. "This time of year, you don't lay down," Ramirez said. You keep going. And so Ramirez did, taking a painkilling injection and carrying on, in the process serving as an emblem for the rest of the Dodgers, who fought through discomforts of their own on Monday to score a 3-0 victory over the Cardinals, slicing St. Louis's National League Championship Series lead to two games to one. The Dodgers received a masterful pitching performance from the rookie left-hander Hyun-Jin Ryu, who allowed three hits and a walk in seven scoreless innings, as well as a reawakening from Yasiel Puig. They also watched as the Cardinals made the kind of costly mistakes that they had not made in St. Louis. But the lift that the Dodgers needed most may have simply been the presence of Ramirez, the engine of their offense and the anchor of their hopes. He delivered two base hits - both looped into center field, one of which delivered a run - and a deep fly ball to right, which would help the Dodgers take the lead. He also affected the way the Cardinals pitched to the rest of the lineup. "You've got the whole off-season to worry," said reliever Brian Wilson, a two-time champion with the Giants, who pitched a scoreless eighth ahead of closer Kenley Jansen. If you can just strap it on, I can promise you that it's all worth it when in November when you sit back and you're a winner. Ramirez was drilled by a pitch from Joe Kelly in the opener and was scratched from Game 2. A CT scan Sunday revealed that Ramirez had a fractured rib on his left side. Once doctors assured the Dodgers that Ramirez could do no further damage unless he was hit in the rib again, he received an injection to numb the pain and proceeded to play. One by one, circumstances were stacking up against the Dodgers. They had used their two best pitchers, Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke, in the first two games of the series and won neither. Ramirez was intentionally walked twice in the opener and then missed the next day, so with or without their best hitter, who batted .500 with six extra-base hits and six runs batted in a division series against Atlanta, they would have to beat the Cardinals" ace, Adam Wainwright, to keep from falling into an almost insurmountable hole. When Dodgers Manager Don Mattingly said earlier Monday that one critical hit, one crucial pitching performance might swing this series back in his team's direction, it carried a scent of wishful thinking. Instead. it proved prescient. Mark Ellis led off the fourth with a drive into the right-center-field gap. Center fielder Jon Jay appeared to have a play on the ball, but at the last moment he pulled up and watched the ball drop. That brought up Ramirez, and in contrast to Game 1, the Cardinals pitched to him. Ramirez drove a fly ball to right, sending Ellis to third. Adrian Gonzalez followed by fisting the ball down the right-field line, ending a 22-inning scoreless streak for the Dodgers. The streak - and their circumstances in the series - weighed so heavily on the Dodgers that the usually stoic Gonzalez was brought out of character. As he slid into second base, Gonzalez popped up, waved his arms toward the Dodgers" dugout and brought the white-towel-waving crowd to its feet. A groundout brought up Puig, who was hitless in 11 at-bats with five consecutive strikeouts when he drove a fastball from Wainwright to deep right field. Puig immediately threw his hands in the air, certain that the ball would land over the wall. And then, after a couple steps, he was not. The ball landed two feet below the top of the bullpen gate, but by the time it had, Puig had accelerated into top gear. He charged around the bases and into third standing up, throwing his arms overhead as he arrived with a triple that stretched the Dodgers" lead to 2-0. "It's Puig," Carl Crawford said, talking as much about his histrionics as his performance. He's been doing it all year. It's one of those things when rookies shouldn't be doing it, but they love it around here. Puig's enthusiasm did not carry over when he singled in his next at-bat, to begin the seventh. Given the chance to take out Cardinals second baseman Matt Carpenter on Juan Uribe's ground ball to short, Puig instead peeled off, and the Cardinals turned a double play. It was one of several opportunities the Dodgers squandered that might have removed some tension from the game. A.J. Ellis hit a leadoff triple in the fifth but was stranded when Ryu grounded out, Crawford struck out and Mark Ellis grounded out. Andre Ethier made the seventh a little more stressful for Ryu when he was unable to glove a sinking one-out liner by Yadier Molina. Ethier, who hopped on his sore ankle after grounding out in the second, approached the ball gingerly, and it was hard not to wonder if Skip Schumaker, who had been Ethier's replacement, would have done better. But that has been the way in this tense matchup, where managers" decisions have been dissected, pitchers have dominated and games have turned on a few critical plays. On Monday night, so did the tenor of a series.