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Durham, Giants take advantage of Dodgers' shaky defense

Apr 27, 2007 - 6:40 AM LOS ANGELES (Ticker) -- For a change, somebody picked up for Barry Bonds.

Ray Durham doubled in the go-ahead run in the eighth inning and the San Francisco Giants went on to post their eighth straight win, a 5-4 triumph over the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Bengie Molina and Omar Vizquel added two hits apiece for the Giants, who are on their longest run since a 10-game winning streak in 2004 after their first sweep here since 2002.

"We're playing pretty sound baseball," Durham said. "We're getting solid pitching, timely hitting and playing the game correctly."

Despite the hitting exploits by Durham and company, who totaled 11 hits, the Dodgers' lack of defense was instrumental in this contest.

Center fielder Juan Pierre had Durham's double glance off his glove in deep right-center on a play he should have made.

"Once he lunged for it, I thought he was going to catch the ball," Durham said. "Then it hit the tip of his glove and fell in."

"That's a ball I have to catch," Pierre admitted. "At the end of the game, you have to make plays, and I didn't make the play. I directly affected the game in a bad way, but I know I'm better than that."

Molina then singled past second baseman Jeff Kent, who showed little range to his left.

"It was a seeing-eye base hit," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. "He almost got it, but he just couldn't reach it."

During a two-run sixth, Kent had an RBI single by Durham tip off his glove. Durham had another base hit glance off his glove earlier in the contest.

"Sometimes you hit the ball right on the screws and it goes right at someone," Durham said. "Sometimes you hit them just out of reach and they fall in. That's baseball."

The decisive inning started when Joe Beimel (1-1) walked Vizquel and Ryan Klesko singled to right, bringing up Bonds, who homered and drove in four runs in Wednesday's victory. But the seven-time MVP grounded into a double play, and Beimel seemed poised to escape until Durham delivered the big hit.

Bonds finished 1-for-3 with an intentional walk, remaining 14 homers shy of Hank Aaron's all-time mark.

After Giants starter Russ Ortiz left with one out in the sixth, San Francisco's bullpen continued a stellar stretch.

"We're doing a lot of good things right now," Bochy said. "The bullpen is coming through."

Steve Kline got one out and Kevin Correia (1-1) recorded four more before Brad Hennessey yielded an eighth-inning homer by Andre Ethier that snapped a 17 1/3-inning scoreless stretch by Giant relievers.

Armando Benitez worked a perfect ninth for his third straight save in the series and seventh of the season.

The Dodgers reached Ortiz for a run in the first and two more in the third.

"It might sound funny, because they had the bases loaded in the third, but right there, it started to click," Ortiz said.

Pierre led off the first with a base hit, stole second and scored on a line single to left field by Nomar Garciaparra, who entered the night batting .600 (6-for-10) with runners in scoring position.

Russell Martin opened the second with a double off the base of the right-center field wall and Wilson Betemit was hit by a pitch. Ethier lined a double into the left field corner, plating one run and Furcal drove in another with a one-out single before a botched squeeze play kept the Dodgers at bay.

Ortiz settled down and the Giants started pecking away against starter Brad Penny, who was looking to become the first Dodger to being a season 4-0 since Kaz Ishii opened the 2002 campaign with six wins.

"I wasn't all over the place, and when I was missing, it wasn't by much," Ortiz said. "From the get-go, I was real close in the zone."

Randy Winn led off the third with a double to left and scored on a one-out single by former Dodger Dave Roberts to cut the deficit to 3-1. Penny induced an inning-ending double play from Klesko to escape that frame and retired the next seven batters before Vizquel doubled into the right-center field gap with one out in the sixth and advanced to third on a groundout.

After Bonds was walked intentionally, Durham singled off Kent's glove, plating Vizquel. Molina then singled up the middle, scoring Bonds for a 3-3 tie.

Penny left after six frames, allowing three runs on seven hits with a walk and two strikeouts.

Ortiz yielded three runs and eight hits in 5 1/3 innings.

Before the sweep, the Dodgers won eight straight meetings with the Giants.

"It was a tough series for us," Martin said. "We have to look past this and just get through it."

"We certainly didn't like getting swept at home," Bochy said. "To come back here and bounce back is big."

The Dodgers take to the road for a weekend series with San Diego.

"We just have to do some hitting and win some games," Los Angeles manager Grady Little said. "We'll go down to San Diego and see what we can do."

"Good teams know how to nip it in the bud and not let it snowball," Pierre said.