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Cruz's double breaks up pitchers' duel, sends Padres to win

Jul 1, 2007 - 7:05 AM LOS ANGELES (Ticker) -- In a pitchers' duel that showcased the two most likely National League candidates for a starting assignment in the All-Star Game, it took a former Los Angeles Dodger to end it.

Jose Cruz Jr. plated the go-ahead run in the 12th inning as the San Diego Padres downed the Dodgers, 3-1, in 12 innings on Saturday.

Dodgers starter Brad Penny went seven innings, yielding just one run and five hits with seven strikeouts. Padres ace Jake Peavy matched the effort over seven frames, permitting one run and five hits with six strikeouts. With their efforts, Penny and Peavy rank 1-2 in the NL in ERA and figure to be the top two choices for starting honors in the Midsummer Classic.

"Peavy had good stuff and good command," Padres manager Bud Black said. "Both pitchers dialed it up a notch and tonight showed why they are the best pitchers in the National League."

Cruz, who played for Los Angeles last season, helped snap a 1-1 tie in the top of the 12th as he lined a double to left off Brett Tomko (1-6), just inches in front of the glove of left fielder Andre Ethier, giving the Padres a 2-1 lead. The RBI double broke open 4 1/3 innings of scoreless work from the Dodgers' bullpen.

"Our bullpen pitched some good baseball tonight," Dodgers manager Grady Little said. "(It's) just too bad we couldn't keep it going because this would have been a good win for our club."

Pinch hitter Geoff Blum followed with a run-scoring double of his own in the next at-bat, further increasing the advantage to 3-1.

Royce Ring (1-0) got the final out of the 11th to get the win before turning it over to closer Trevor Hoffman, who pitched a scoreless 12th for his 23rd save in 25 chances. The save was his 60th against Los Angeles, the highest total he has against any team.

"The (bullpen) has been doing it all year for us and it's the consistency that speaks for itself," Black said.

As has become one of the Dodgers' bad habits, they failed to take advantage of a few opportunities they had to end the game earlier. One of the best opportunities was in the bottom of the 11th, as Russell Martin got things going with a one-out single, Los Angeles' first hit since the eighth.

He stole second later in the inning - his 15th - becoming the first Dodgers catcher in 102 years to steal at least that many bases in a season - Lew Ritter stole 16 for Brooklyn in 1905. However, Martin was a bit overaggressive as he was thrown out by catcher Michael Barrett trying to steal on the same pitch that Jeff Kent drew a walk.

"(I) just wanted to make things happen on the bases and put pressure on their defense," Martin said.

"We know that Russell can run and we knew that Barrett has been having trouble throwing out runners this year but it just didn't work out for us," Little said.

Luis Gonzalez followed with a walk of his own, placing runners on first and second with two out, but Nomar Garciaparra grounded out weakly to third to end yet another scoring threat for the Dodgers.

"We had our chances to put runs on the board tonight but just couldn't come up with that big hit," Martin said.

Los Angeles scored their only run in the bottom in the fifth when Garciaparra, who had not homered in a major league-high 231 at-bats, hit a solo shot to right-center off Peavy, who had not surrendered a homer in 84 1/3 innings prior to Garciaparra's home run.

"Nomar hit a pitch down and away and I didn't want to walk him, I wanted him to earn it," Peavy said. "Good hitters are going to get you sometimes and he got me tonight. I knew after that run, I couldn't give up anymore."