Story Created:
Sep 1, 2010 at 3:42 PM PST
Story Updated:
Sep 1, 2010 at 3:42 PM PST
Roy Oswalt pitched one-hit ball into the seventh and the Philadelphia Phillies used leadoff homers by Jimmy Rollins and Shane Victorino in the first two innings to beat the Dodgers 5-1 Wednesday at Dodger Stadium.
The Dodgers managed only three hits in support of Clayton Kershaw and didn’t put up much of a struggle against Oswalt (10-13), who has been a valuable pennant-drive pickup for Philadelphia
The right-hander, who turned 33 Sunday, held Los Angeles hitless until Casey Blake lined a clean single to right field with two outs in the sixth after Oswalt issued the fifth of his six walks. Two nights earlier, Dodgers pitcher Hiroki Kuroda no-hit the Phillies until Victorino got a one-out single in the eighth.
Oswalt threw 115 pitches and struck out six. The three-time All-Star is 4-1 with a 1.90 ERA in seven starts since the Phillies acquired him in a trade with Houston July 29—including a 2-0 win over Los Angeles in which he pitched seven innings in his second start with Philadelphia.
The last time he pitched at Dodger Stadium July 17, 2009, Oswalt threw a four-hitter on six days’ rest and won 8-1.
The Dodgers got an unearned run in the eighth off Ryan Madson on James Loney’s RBI single. But Madson minimized the damage by retiring Blake on an inning-ending, double-play grounder.
Kershaw (11-9) allowed two hits and five hits over six innings, struck out 11 and walked two. The 22-year-old left-hander overtook Philadelphia’s Roy Halladay for the NL lead in strikeouts with 191 and is second in walks with 76, two behind Milwaukee’s Randy Wolf.
The last pitcher to lead the NL in both categories at the end of a season was Houston’s J.R. Richard in 1978 (303 strikeouts, 141 walks).
Kershaw is 0-4 with a 5.18 ERA in six regular-season starts against the Phillies—including a no-decision Aug. 12 at Philadelphia, when he left after 6 2-3 innings with a 6-2 lead and watched the bullpen allow four runs in the eighth and four more in the ninth in a 10-9 loss.
Rollins drove Kershaw’s second pitch just over the left-field fence for his second leadoff homer this season and 35th of his career, extending his own franchise record. It was the first time this year that a Dodgers pitcher gave up a leadoff homer in the first inning.
Kershaw got behind Victorino 2-0 in the second and watched his next pitch land in the left-field bullpen. It was Victorino’s career-high 16th homer and the 13th allowed by Kershaw, six more than were hit off him last season. Chase Utley added a pair of RBI doubles, in the seventh and ninth.
The Phillies, who beat the Dodgers in each of the last two NL championship series, began the day trailing Atlanta by three games in their bid for a fourth straight East Division title and were leading the wild-card race by 1 1/2 games over San Francisco. The Braves and Giants both played at home later.
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