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Lohse in fine form as Cardinals down Dodgers

May 25, 2008 - 6:54 AM LOS ANGELES (Ticker) -- The Los Angeles Dodgers just cannot seem find a way to solve the St. Louis Cardinals.

Kyle Lohse tossed six scoreless innings and Rick Ankiel capped a four-run third with a two-run double, sending the Cardinals to a 4-0 win over the Dodgers on Saturday.

Lohse (4-2) allowed just six hits and struck out five to end his four-game winless streak for St. Louis, which won its fourth straight game against Los Angeles and improved to 24-8 in its last 32 meetings against them.

"It's just a matter of going out there and locating, I had a couple rough starts where I was missing over the plate," Lohse said. "It all comes down to locating the fastball and working off that, using both sides of the plate and keeping the ball down in the zone and working in the slider.

"The pitching staff is trying to go out there and get our job done, it's been one of those contagious things and were getting it done."

The Cardinals, who haven't allowed more than three runs in any of their last five games, are 6-1 over their last seven contests.

"Our pitching has been solid, the starters have been absolutely solid for us," Ankiel said. "I don't think we're playing out of our means but playing to our potential."

Rookies Kyle McClellan and Chris Perez - along with Randy Flores - each worked an inning to finish off the Cardinals' third shutout of the season.

After Brad Penny (5-5) issued a pair of two-out walks in the third, Chris Duncan singled home the game's first run. Albert Pujols followed with an RBI double and Ankiel plated two more runs with a double of his own.

"A couple of our hits were well-placed, we pitched real well, Lohse did a great job and our bullpen shut them down," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said. "The runs we scored was just great two-out hitting, we just tried to be aggressive against a guy that threw really good.

"I don't think Penny is a losing pitcher when a couple of those balls were well-placed."

Penny, who turned 30 on Saturday, yielded four runs and four hits with two walks and five strikeouts in dropping to 0-3 over his last four starts. He had won each of his previous four outings.

The loss gave the two-time All-Star one more than he had all of last season, when he finished 16-4.

"The third inning was disappointing, they didn't hit the ball hard, but with two outs and no runners on," Penny said. "I've got to get out of the inning.

"(While) it was probably the best I've felt in five years, it was disappointing at the same time. I thought I threw the ball well, but (the Cardinals) were hitting good pitches. I just got to keep going out there with the stuff I had tonight."

For the second straight contest, the Dodgers provided little support for their starter. They scored just one run against Adam Wainwright in Friday's 2-1 loss.

Los Angeles also went 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position on Saturday and are 0-for-21 in such situations over the last three games.

"We're not doing a very good job swinging the bats right now, we're a little impatient," Dodgers manager Joe Torre said. "We have a lot of inexperience. Young players mature at their own speed and try to do too much. It's frustrating. We have to think about the little things and the big things will happen."