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Park pitches Dodgers past Angels

Jun 28, 2008 - 6:58 AM LOS ANGELES (Ticker) -- Chan Ho Park helped the Los Angeles Dodgers reverse their fortunes in the "Freeway Series."

Park pitched six scoreless innings to lead the Dodgers to a 6-0 victory over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in the opener of a three-game interleague series on Friday night.

The 34-year-old Korean import, Park (3-2) allowed just four hits while striking out seven and did not surrender a walk as Los Angeles earned just its third win in the last 12 meetings against the cross-town rival Angels. The win also helped the Dodgers improve to 4-9 in interleague play this season.

"He's the old Chan Ho right now, his velocity is up and his breaking pitches have a lot of snap to them," Dodgers catcher Russell Martin said. "He's aggressive and getting ahead of hitters and locating all of his pitches, he's been awesome."

Usually the team's long reliever, Park threw 90 pitches - 64 strikes - in his third start of 2008, recording his first win in five starts at Dodger Stadium against Anaheim, which entered Friday's contest with the best road record in the majors.

"I just kept the ball down and (Martin) called a great game today, I felt really comfortable," Park said. "When you are on the same page as your catcher, there is not much to think about - you just execute the pitch and hit the target."

Park got some early run support as Martin put the Dodgers on top, 1-0, with a solo home run off Angels starter Joe Saunders (11-4) in the first inning.

"I was waiting for something up in the zone and I tried to put a good swing on it," Martin said. "I looked for something over the plate to drive and he gave me that pitch. We had some great situational hitting, hitting with guys on base, and having some great at-bats. If we can start playing more like we did today we're going to be alright."

Los Angeles extended its advantage to 3-0 in the fifth on the strength of some poor Angels defense.

After Matt Kemp singled to lead off the frame, Martin rolled a groundball to shortstop Erik Aybar, who threw the ball away at second while attempting a double play, allowing Kemp and Martin to advance to second and third.

Jeff Kent capitalized on the miscue, plating Martin with a sacrifice fly to right field before James Loney capped the inning with an RBI single to center.

Saunders gave up three runs - two earned - and five hits in five innings, walking four while striking out four. The 27-year-old lefthander failed in his bid to become the majors first 12-game winner this season.

"(Saunders) had good stuff. On the home run to Martin, he tried to get the sinker away and it cut in a little," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "He had some trouble working the outside corner and the Dodgers opened the door for themselves with some good situational hitting. All in all, Joe's start wasn't too bad he just needed a lot of pitches to get to that point in the game."

Andre Either doubled the Dodgers lead in the seventh, rounding out the scoring with a three-run homer to right field off Angels' reliever Justin Speier.

"I just went up and wanted to have a quality at-bat and put the ball in play hard somewhere," Ethier said. "(Speier) pitches tough and I knew I wasn't going to get much to hit, but fortunately he made a mistake and I hit it."