• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Martin homers twice as Dodgers snap slide

Aug 16, 2007 - 6:32 AM LOS ANGELES (Ticker) -- Russell Martin homered twice and Brad Penny hung on long enough to earn his 14th win as the Los Angeles Dodgers earned a 6-3 victory over the Houston Astros on Wednesday.

Juan Pierre had three hits, stole two bases and scored a pair of runs for the Dodgers, who had lost four straight and 10 of 12 entering Wednesday's contest.

"We played a good overall game tonight," Dodgers manager Grady Little said. "It was a good win for us."

Martin tied the score with a solo blast in the second and put Los Angeles ahead for good with a two-run blast in the sixth.

The 24-year-old catcher came into the game on an 0-for-12 skid before busting out in his first at-bat against Houston starter Jason Jennings (2-8).

"It feels good to get a win and help the team," Martin said. "Penny pitched a good game for us, and we just went out tonight with win on our mind."

Penny (14-3) snapped a three-start winless streak to join Chicago Cub Carlos Zambrano as the only National League hurlers with 14 wins. The burly righthander yielded three runs and 10 hits in six innings, striking out six and issuing one walk.

"I didn't throw my best game," Penny said. "It was good to keep us in the game and pull a win out for the team," Penny said.

Two relievers bridged the gap to closer Takashi Saito, who pitched a scoreless ninth to earn his 30th save.

"It was just one of those games where everything went good for us," Martin said. "Our bullpen came in and did a great job shutting them down."

The six runs the Dodgers put on the board were the most the club had scored since an 8-7 loss to Arizona on August 4. Over the 12 games prior to Wednesday, Los Angeles had scored just 24 runs total.

Another loss looked likely when the Astros jumped out to a 3-1 lead with single runs in the second, third and fourth against Penny, but Jennings, who has struggled all season, failed to hold the lead.

"I was pitching good early in the game, but then made some mistakes with my location and got into trouble," Jennings said.

Pierre led off the home half of the sixth with single and advanced to third on Matt Kemp's single. After Jeff Kent flied out to center, Pierre scored on a sacrifice fly by rookie James Loney.

Martin followed by driving a 2-0 offering into the seats in center field to forge a 4-3 advantage and force Jennings from the game.

"I got some good pitches to hit tonight that were up in the zone and just put a good swing on it," Martin said.

Jennings was charged with four runs and seven hits in 5 2/3 frames. The veteran righthander struck out four and did not walk a batter. He has now allowed 25 runs in his last 19 innings pitched, good for an 11.84 ERA since his last win on July 24.

Los Angeles struck for two more runs in the seventh with Pierre driving in a run with a single and coming around to score on Kemp's RBI double.

"I hope this game will get the offense going and we can put some more wins together," Little said.

The Astros loss snapped a three-game winning streak.