• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers
• Game Tracker

Dodgers, Ethier both try to stay on a roll vs. Cubs

May 3, 2011 - 3:05 PM (Sports Network) - Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Andre Ethier is entrenched in a 28-game hitting streak and has been especially good against right-handed pitchers.

Ethier looks to keep rolling tonight against Chicago Cubs righty Ryan Dempster in the middle test of a three-game series from Chavez Ravine. Ethier, who is batting .438 against right-handed pitching, had an RBI single during a three- run fifth inning in Monday's 5-2 win over the Cubs. He is hitting .392 during the streak (42-for-107), which began on April 2, and is three games shy of tying Willie Davis for the longest hit streak in Dodgers history. Davis had a 31-game run from Aug. 1-Sept. 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.

"Only halfway? Wow," Ethier told the team's site. "We've been playing a month or over a month. I guess still a long way to go. Like I said, there's nothing really to get too excited about other than we bounced back after two tough losses there to San Diego."

Whether he's keeping track or not, Ethier is on the longest hitting streak in the majors since Washington All-Star third baseman Ryan Zimmerman hit safely in 30 straight contests from April 8 - May 12, 2009. Ethier can match Johnny Damon's 29-gamer from June 10 - July 17, 2005.

Los Angeles bounced back from those two aforementioned losses to the Padres to win for the seventh time in 12 tries last night, and received a decent outing from Clayton Kershaw, who threw seven innings of two-run ball with four strikeouts and no walks. Vicente Padilla hurled a scoreless eighth and Jonathan Broxton struck out one in the ninth for his seventh save.

Jerry Sands drove in two runs and Juan Uribe finished with two hits and an RBI in a winning effort. The Dodgers have won Chad Billingsley's last three starts and hope to make it four in a row when the right-hander takes the ball Tuesday. Billingsley is 2-1 with a 4.46 ERA in six starts and is coming off a no-decision in last Wednesday's 5-4 win at Florida.

Billingsley was reached for four runs and five hits in six innings. He will face the Cubs for the second time since April 22, when the Dodgers recorded a 12-2 victory and got 6 1/3 solid innings out of tonight's starter. Billingsley allowed two runs -- one earned -- to improve to 4-3 with a 3.47 ERA in nine career games (7 starts) against Chicago.

The Cubs have lost two straight and six of their last eight games. James Russell got the nod in Monday's series opener and was pelted for five runs -- four earned -- and six hits over 4 2/3 innings to absorb the loss.

"I had a chance to get Sands and didn't execute my pitch well," Russell said of Sands' two-run double in the fifth. "Five runs and I got beat tonight."

Alfonso Soriano, who set a club mark with 10 April homers, hit a solo home run and Geovany Soto added an RBI double for the Cubs.

Taking the ball for the Cubs this evening will be Dempster, who has enjoyed success in his career against the Dodgers, going 7-3 with a 2.81 earned run average in 23 games, 13 of which have been starts. Dempster is 4-0 in his last six starts in this series, but 1-1 in nine career games (3 starts) in LA.

Dempster faced the Dodgers on April 23 this season in a 10-8 win and did not record a decision after he allowed seven runs and nine hits in 5 2/3 frames. The righty last toed the rubber in an 11-2 loss at Arizona on Thursday, as he yielded seven more runs in a career-worst one-third of an inning. On a more positive note, Dempster owns a 7-2 mark in his last 10 road starts.

Los Angeles recently won two of three meetings with Chicago from April 22-24 at Wrigley Field and is 6-2 in the past eight matchups between the two clubs.