Dodgers like what they see in 6-0 win

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Clayton Kershaw stood in the Dodgers clubhouse Tuesday surrounded by a throng of reporters when James Loney sidled up to the back of the scrum, smiled and stuck up two thumbs.

Kershaw smiled back.

‘It was all right,’ he deadpanned, giving his own take on the night’s performance as Loney shuffled off to the shower.

And Tuesday night’s 6-0 win over the Colorado Rockies was, indeed, worthy of two thumbs-up. Consider this shorthand review of the highlights:

* Kershaw worked seven scoreless innings to win for just the second time in seven starts. He leads the Dodgers rotation with 11 wins and a 3.03 ERA.

* Scott Podsednik’s two-run opposite-field double, the Dodgers’ first hit in their last 26 at-bats with runners in scoring position, keyed a five-run fifth inning. The Dodgers haven’t lost all season when they have scored that many runs in an inning

* After the bullpen got off to another shaky start in the eighth, it was George Sherrill and Jonathan Broxton who bailed them out; Sherrill working out of a two-on, no-out jam in the eighth before Broxton pitched a perfect ninth.

Add it all up and, well, it doesn’t exactly get the Dodgers back into the pennant race, but it did give them their second win in seven games -- and that’s a start.

‘When you start getting down to the number of games we have, the urgency is on us,’ said Manager Joe Torre, whose team is seven games back in the wild-card race with 42 to play. ‘It’s always important to win games. But when you’re running out of games and you stop controlling [your] destiny and all that stuff, you basically get what you earn.

‘Right now, we’ve got to get ourselves back in the situation where we come to the ballpark expecting to win instead of ‘what’s going to go wrong today?’ The only way to get it back is to win games. There’s no secret formula other than to go out there and get a lead and hold a lead.’

And though the Dodgers followed Torre’s formula to perfection Tuesday, the flaws that have haunted them for most of the second half of the season remained evident.

The offense, by the team’s own accounting, has been unproductive and inconsistent. It was again Tuesday, save for one inning, Take away the fifth and the Dodgers managed three singles and an unearned run.

Podsednik’s double, which one-hopped the short fence in the left-field corner, saved them this time. And, he hopes, it may come to infect them as well.

‘Hitting’s contagious. And a lack of hitting’s contagious,’ he said. ‘We’ve just been scattering hits around as of late. We haven’t been coming up with big hits with guys on. Pretty much all the games we’ve been in we lacked that one big hit with runners on. So that double came at a good time.’

Especially because it was followed by a two-run double from Loney and an RBI single from Casey Blake.

Meanwhile, the bullpen, which has been a nightmare recently, almost kept Torre up again when Kenley Jansen opened the eighth by giving up a walk and a single to the first two batters he faced. But Sherrill came on to restore order, working an inning for his fourth consecutive scoreless appearance, before Broxton, who lost his closer’s job on the team’s recent road trip, pitched a 1-2-3 ninth.

‘It’s just one more step in the right direction,’ said Broxton, who has gone 1-4 with three blown saves and a 9.00 ERA since the All-Star Game, where he earned a save in the National League’s victory. ‘I’ve just got to keep going out there and getting outs. It’s going back to normal.’

Torre and Kershaw agreed.

‘He looked smoother to me. He just seemed like a little more of what we are used to seeing from him tonight,’ said the manager.

Added Kershaw: ‘He looked like we all expect him to look. Fastball was right there. And everything looked great tonight. That’s going to be huge for us.’

As would more starts like the one Kershaw turned in. The left-hander scattered five hits and struck out six in seven scoreless innings, running his record against the Rockies to 3-0 with 0.92 ERA this season. He hasn’t allowed a run to Colorado in his last 29 innings at home, a streak that dates to June 2008.

All of which sparked a boffo review from Torre as well. Although the manager kept his thumbs to himself, he clearly enjoyed what he saw.

‘We continued to be tested,’ he said. ‘They aren’t going to quit; they are going to keep going. Certainly our goal is to make the playoffs, but more important than anything else for me is that they are going to go out there and play the game.’

-- Kevin Baxter