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Ethier extends streak, Dodgers beat Cubs

May 3, 2011 - 5:50 AM Los Angeles, CA (Sports Network) - Andre Ethier extended his hitting streak to 28 games with an RBI single in the fifth to help the Los Angeles Dodgers take a 5-2 win over the Chicago Cubs in the opener of a three-game set.

Ethier went just 1-for-4 in the game, but his single was good enough to move him within three games of tying Willie Davis for the longest hit streak in Dodger history. Davis set the record from August 1-September 3, 1969.

The National League record for consecutive hits is 44 games set by Pete Rose in 1978 and, of course, Joe DiMaggio holds the Major League record with a 56- game run during the 1941 season.

Jerry Sands hit a two-run double and scored once while Juan Uribe and Ivan DeJesus both drove in a run for the Dodgers, who came into the game having lost four of six.

Clayton Kershaw (3-3) gave up two runs on eight hits with four strikeouts over seven innings.

"The Cubs had their chances and you have to get them across early, especially against good pitchers," said Los Angeles manager Don Mattingly. "He was able to get them out in the first and after that he was tough."

Alfonso Soriano hit a solo home run and Geovany Soto added an RBI double for the Cubs, who have dropped two straight and six of eight.

James Russell (1-4) was touched for five runs -- four earned -- on six hits with three strikeouts in just 4 2/3 innings.

The Cubs got on the board in the first when Soto hit a two-out double to right that scored Marlon Byrd.

The Dodgers, though, tied the game on Uribe's double in the second and took a 2-1 advantage thanks to DeJesus' run-scoring single later in the frame.

In the fifth, Sands hit a two-run double and Ethier followed with a bloop shot to short that went off the glove of Starlin Castro and was ruled a hit, scoring Sands for a 5-1 advantage.

"I had a chance to get Sands and didn't execute my pitch well," said Russell. "Five runs and I got beat tonight."

Soriano led off the seventh with a homer to left to make it a three-run game. However, after Reed Johnson's one-out single later in the frame, Los Angeles pitchers retired the next eight batters with Jonathan Broxton working a 1-2-3 ninth for his seventh save of the year.

Game Notes

The Dodgers took two of three from the Cubs in Chicago last week and have won six of the last eight...LA went 4-for-9 with runners in scoring position...Ryan Dempster takes the mound for Chicago on Tuesday and will be opposed by Chad Billingsley.