The Dodgers were held hitless until there was two out in the fifth and
Toronto held a 2-0 lead in the sixth before Jeff Kent banged his 10th home run with Juan Pierre on base with a double. The Blue Jays bounced back with a run off Mark Hendrickson in the bottom of the inning.
Pierre, who would make the first two outs of the eighth inning, bounced out
and Toronto called on Casey Janssen, who came into the game with a microscopic 0.95 earned run average.
The Dodgers had only four hits at that point in the game but then the fireworks started. Nomar Garciaparra singled to right and Kent slammed a shot that hit the top of the right field wall and bounced back onto the field for a double. Luis Gonzalez was intentionally walked to load the bases and Martin slashed a double to right, boosting L.A. into a 4-3 lead.
Olmedo Saenz fisted a looper to center for a single and an insurance run and manager Grady Little called on pitcher Randy Wolf to run for him. Matt Kemp crushed a drive off the center field wall. 6-3. Former Dodger Jason Frasor replaced Janssen before Tony Abreu singled to right. 7-3. Rafael Furcal singled to left 8-3.
Chad Billingsley, in his first start of the year, burned up his allotted 70 pitches by the fourth inning and left trailing 2-0 after allowing an opposite-field home run. He allowed only two hits and struck out two. Mark Hendrickson worked into the seventh, Rudy Seanez (4-1), finished the inning and earned the run before Jonathan Broxton and Takashi Saito nailed the win down.
Derek Lowe (7-6, 3.08 ERA) opens a three-game series tonight in St. Petersburg, Fla., opposing Tampa Bay's Andy Sonnanstine (1-1, 7.11).
Score by innings
Los Angeles 000 002 060-8
Toronto 020 001 010-4
Los Angeles ab r h bi ave
Furcal ss 4 0 1 0 .276
Pierre cf 5 1 1 0 .276
Garciaparra 1b 5 1 1 0 .281
Kent 2b 5 2 2 2 .264
Gonzalez lf 4 1 0 0 .289
Martin c 5 1 1 2 .287
Anderson dh 1 0 0 0 .250
Saenz ph-dh 2 0 1 1 .220
Wolf pr 0 1 0 0 .120
Ethier rf 0 0 0 0 .271
Kemp ph-rf 2 1 2 1 .425
Abreu 3b 4 0 2 1 .274
Totals 37 8 11 8
Toronto 30 4 5 4
2B- Pierre (10), Kent (17), Martin (15), Kemp
(2). HR- Kent (10). RBI- Kent 2 (36), Martin 2
(45), Saenz (11) Kemp (7), Abreu (7), Furcal
(26). LOB- Los Angeles 7, Toronto 7.
Los Angeles in h r-er bb so era
Billingsley 3.2 2 2-2 3 2 3.26
Hendrickson 2.2 2 1-1 1 2 4.48
Seanez (4-1) 0.2 1 1-1 1 1 3.74
Broxton 1.0 0 0-0 1 1 3.44
Saenz 1.0 0 0-0 0 1 1.50
HBP- Ethier. T- 3:04. Att- 25,265.
Dodger Blue Notes-- Dodgers trainer Stan Conte was named to the training staff of the National League All-Star team on Thursday. The 78th All-Star Game will be played in San Francisco on July 10. Conte is in his first season as director of medical services for the Dodgers, after he spent 15 seasons with the Giants, including seven as head trainer and physical therapist. ...The Dodgers moved to 4-8 in Interleague games this season and 84-89 all-time in Interleague Play, which includes a 3-21 mark in their last 23 road games against the American League. ...Luis Gonzalez had four RBI on Tuesday night to give him 1,358 in his career, passing Brooks Robinson for 73rd place on the all-time list. Of those RBI, 117 have come in Interleague, the eighth-most since the inception of Interleague Play and one behind Jason Giambi for seventh on that list.