On a night when rumor became fact, the Albuquerque Isotopes finally followed the footsteps of their soon-to-be teammate.

After 11 innings of scoreless baseball, the Isotopes exploded for seven runs and nine hits to take a 7-4 win over the Omaha Royals in Pacific Coast League baseball at Isotopes Park on Saturday.

The offensive explosion could be a precursor of things to come, since the biggest star with the parent club Los Angeles Dodgers will be in an Isotopes uniform on Tuesday. The Dodgers confirmed that All-Star left fielder Manny Ramirez will start his 10-day rehabilitation assignment in Albuquerque. He is serving a 50-game suspension for violating Major League Baseball's drug policy.

Trailing 4-0 entering the third, Albuquerque scored three runs to creep to within a run. The Isotopes took the lead in the fifth with three more runs on a two-run double by Chin-lung Hu and an RBI sacrifice fly by Jamie Hoffman for 6-4.

Omaha, which had six hits in the first two innings, collected only three the rest of the way. Hyang-Nam Choi pitched three scoreless innings of relief to get the win, and Scott Strickland had a perfect ninth to earn his 11th save.

Note: More than 11,000 tickets have been sold for the final four games of the Isotopes' homestand, which coincide with Ramirez's arrival. Steve Hurlbert, the Isotopes' director of media relations, said none of the games are sold out as of Saturday night.

TODAY'S GAME

Omaha Royals (27-42) at Albuquerque Isotopes (34-35)

When: Today, 6:05 p.m.

Where: Isotopes Park

Probable starters: RHP Sidney Ponson (0-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. RHP Will Ohman (0-0, 0.00)

Radio: 610 AM, KNML