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Furcal, Garciaparra help Dodgers halt three-game slide

Apr 22, 2008 - 4:35 AM By Doug Tifft PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

CINCINNATI (Ticker) - The Los Angeles Dodgers could only piece together three runs in dropping their last three games. It took all of three innings on Monday for them to eclipse that total.

Rafael Furcal and Nomar Garciaparra each homered, powering the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 9-3 victory over the Cincinnati Reds.

Los Angeles scored just one run in each of its three games against Atlanta and was outscored, 16-3, over the weekend in a three-game sweep at the hands of the Braves.

It was a much different story at Great American Ball Park on Monday, however, as the Dodgers scored in each of the first three innings on their way to snapping their three-game slide.

"We gotta forget about what happened in Atlanta," Furcal said. "We gotta keep going to the future. We know we got a young team and we can play baseball."

Seven Dodgers had hits in the contest, including Russell Martin, who went 3-for-3 - snapping an 8-for-29 slump over the last seven games.

"Today, I felt the most comfortable and got my timing down, it feels like," Martin said. "After I got those first couple of hits, I felt like I was doing it right. It's been a while since I have been searching, and to get it feels good."

Furcal opened up the scoring on the second pitch of the game when he muscled a fastball from Reds starter Matt Belisle (0-1) just over the right-field fence for his second leadoff homer of the season.

It was the 10th time as a Dodger that Furcal led off the game with a home run, tying him with Johnny Frederick for second place in club history.

Los Angeles added two more runs in the second on back-to-back singles by Martin and Garciaparra to earn a 3-0 advantage for the Dodgers. For Garciaparra, who came into the game hitting .091, it was his first RBI of the season.

The scoring continued for Los Angeles in the third when Andre Ethier and Matt Kemp came home on a single from James Loney to make the game 5-0.

The Dodgers finally chased Belisle from the game in the fifth. Kemp plated Jeff Kent with a double to left field and, two batters later, Loney picked up his third RBI of the day when Ethier came home on a ground ball to the right side to make it 7-0.

After Paul Bako put the Reds on the scoreboard with a run-scoring double in the sixth, Garciaparra closed the scoring for the Dodgers when he added a two-run homer in the sixth.

"We were due to break out," Dodgers manager Joe Torre said. "We had good at-bats today. I was pleased with the way that we swung the bats."

Belisle, who was making his first start of the season after suffering from right forearm soreness, was charged with seven runs and 12 hits over four innings.

"You all saw it," Belisle said. "That was just a beating. It was a lot of hits. "Obviously, it's a pretty tough disappointment to come out like that and have those results."

"They jumped us early, didn't they?" Reds manager Dusty Baker said. "It was a merry-go-round out there for a while. It makes it tough when you're playing from behind all the time."

His pitching counterpart, Brad Penny (3-2), fared much better in continuing his mastery of the Reds. He went six innings, permitting one run and six hits with four strikeouts to improve to 7-0 in his last eight starts against the Reds dating back to 2003.

"It's nice, they jumped out and got me an early lead and I don't have to be as fine," Penny said. (I can just) throw more strikes, and go at them."

Chan Ho Park relieved Penny to start the seventh and worked the final three frames for the first save in his 15-year major league career.

Edwin Encarnacion and rookie Joey Votto each homered for the Reds, who have lost three of their last four contests.