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Wolf, Martin continue strong starts as Dodgers snap skid

May 23, 2007 - 6:41 AM LOS ANGELES (Ticker) -- Randy Wolf is leaving little doubt that he is happy to be pitching close to home.

Wolf pitched seven strong innings and Russell Martin homered as the Dodgers posted a 3-2 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday, ending a four-game losing streak.

Wolf (6-3), who was born in nearby Canoga Park, signed with the hometown Dodgers after spending eight productive but injury-plagued seasons with the Philadelphia Phillies.

"Wolf is the type of pitcher that can end losing streaks and he went out there and did just that for us tonight," Dodgers manager Grady Little said.

"It feels good to be able to come out here tonight and keep our team in the game and pull out a win to end our losing streak," Wolf said.

The lefthander, who was the winning pitcher in Los Angeles' last victory over St. Louis on Wednesday, tied a season high by pitching seven frames, yielding two runs and three hits with three walks and four strikeouts.

"I felt good tonight," Wolf said. "I got a lot of ground-ball outs and my defense turned some key double plays. I mixed a lot of my pitches and threw a lot of them for strikes."

With the game tied at 1-1 in the fourth, Martin provided all the working margin the Dodgers would need, sending a pitch from Milwaukee starter Ben Sheets (4-3) over the fence in left-center for a two-run home run, giving Los Angeles a 3-1 advantage.

"Against a guy like Sheets you have to look fastball because if you look for any other pitch, it's going to be pretty hard to hit," Martin said. "I was looking for a fastball and I got one in the zone and I got good wood on it."

"Martin is amazing, he just amazes me everyday and I have to tip my cap to a guy who always wants to get better everyday," Wolf said.

Sheets surrendered three runs - two earned - and four hits with a walk and five strikeouts over 6 1/3 innings.

"I felt really good out there and got into a good groove the whole game and (just) made one mistake to Martin," Sheets said.

The Brewers cut the lead in half in the sixth as Johnny Estrada doubled to left to score Bill Hall and make it 3-2. Wolf got Kevin Mench to ground out three pitches later to end the inning.

"We had some chances to put runs on the board but Randy pitched a great game for those guys today," Brewers manager Ned Yost said.

Wolf returned for the seventh and needed only five pitches to get through the frame before turning the game over to Jonathan Broxton, who struck out two in a perfect eighth. Takashi Saito worked around a two-out single by Gabe Gross in the ninth to post his 14th save in as many chances, converting his 24th consecutive save.

"Our bullpen makes it hard on any team to get runs across and come back against and they did a great job going out there and shutting them down," Wolf said.

Prince Fielder had a hit and an RBI for the Brewers, who remain winless (0-8) games in which they score fewer than three runs.