Jason Johnson made his Dodger debut as a starter and shut out the Giants through six innings while the Dodgers went on to beat the Giants 2-0 to even up the series.
The Dodgers tallied nine hits and scored two in the sixth for the only runs needed for the win. Matt Kemp led things off in the sixth with a single to send his hit streak to a career-high 16 games. Two outs later, James Loney drove an RBI-single to score Kemp for the first run of the game; Loney was 2 for 4 in his team-leading 31st multi-hit game this year. Loney then came around to score when Casey Blake doubled and moved to third when Giants’ leftfielder Fred Lewis allowed the ball to bobble a little over the wall before throwing it in. Juan Pierre was also 1 for 4 with a stolen base, his 100th in a Dodgers uniform.
Jason Johnson started for the first time since August 2006 and won for the first time since May 2006. Johnson scattered five hits across six innings while striking out three and walking none. Chan Ho Park then pitched 1 2/3 hitless innings while striking out two before Jonathan Broxton finished the game with no hits and three K’s in 1 1/3 innings. Broxton is for 5 for 5 in saves.
The Dodgers move to .500 and are still one game back in the division as they head into Wednesday’s rubber match. Chad Billingsley will take the mound against lefty Jonathan Sanchez. Billingsley, now with a double-digits win total, is coming off a quality outing against the Nationals, giving up just two runs in 7 2/3. Sanchez is 8-6. Russell Martin will also be back in the lineup as Billingsley’s battery mate; Torre wanted to give him a day off before the big four-game series with the Dbacks this weekend.
