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Five-run fourth lifts Dodgers over Mets

Jul 22, 2007 - 12:03 AM LOS ANGELES (Ticker) -- The Los Angeles Dodgers scored five times in the fourth inning en route to an 8-6 victory over the New York Mets on Saturday.

Matt Kemp highlighted the fourth-inning outburst with a three-run homer and Los Angeles starter Brad Penny settled down after a rocky start to help the Dodgers avoid their third straight loss at home to the Mets.

Penny (12-1) gave up four runs in the first three innings, then pitched well the rest of the way. In his final 3 1/3 innings, he held the Mets scoreless on two hits, retiring seven in a row at one point.

"I gave up the runs early, and (my teammates) came back and scored," Penny said. "You've got to just go out there and keep going."

The righthander pitched 6 1/3 innings, allowing six hits, two walks and striking out five. The last Dodgers pitcher to begin a season 12-1 was Phil Regan, who started 14-1 in 1966.

The Dodgers were trailing, 4-1, when they batted around against Mets starter Jorge Sosa (7-5) in the fourth. After Jeff Kent flied out to start the inning, seven of the next eight batters recorded hits.

Andre Ethier drove in the first run with a single, then Kemp connected for a three-run shot to left-center field, his sixth of the year, to put the Dodgers in front, 5-4.

"It was a slider, first pitch, and he left it up a little bit," Kemp said. "I knew what to do with it."

Juan Pierre, who recorded two hits and two RBI, drove in the final run of the frame with a double.

Joe Beimel relieved Penny with one out and runners on first and third in the seventh inning and got pinch hitter Paul Lo Duca to ground into an inning-ending double play after a 10-pitch at-bat.

Beimel, however, served up Carlos Beltran's 18th homer of the season, a two-run shot that pulled New York within 8-6, in the eighth inning.

Jonathan Broxton struck out David Wright and Carlos Delgado to end the frame, then pitched a perfect ninth inning to earn his second save.

"Broxton's automatic, just like (closer Takashi) Saito," Kemp said. "He's always money, and he did the job again."

Sosa held the Dodgers hitless for the first two innings but gave up a run in the third when Penny doubled and came around to score on Pierre 's single. He was pulled after the fourth, having surrendered six earned runs on eight hits.

"I left all of my pitches up in the strike zone," Sosa said through an interpreter. "As a pitcher, when you make those kinds of mistakes and you're facing a team like the Dodgers ... you're going to pay."

Los Angeles added two insurance runs in the sixth, thanks to some shaky defense by the Mets. After reliever Scott Schoeneweis loaded the bases with one out, Joe Smith came in to face Russell Martin and induced what looked to be an inning-ending double-play grounder. But second baseman Ruben Gotay threw wildly to first, allowing two runs to score.

The Mets jumped in front with two runs in the second on Ramon Castro's sacrifice fly and Lastings Milledge's RBI single.

New York extended its lead in the third when Wright followed up Beltran's two-out single by smacking Penny's 0-2 offering over the center field wall for his 18th home run.