Perhaps the most encouraging sign came from Saito, who dominated for the first time this season after blowing two of his first four save chances and struggling to convert one of the other two. He set the Marlins down in order in the ninth, striking out two and retiring Wes Helms on a weak pop fly.

Saito said he made a slight mechanical adjustment -- although he wouldn't go into specifics about what it was -- after issuing a four-pitch, leadoff walk to Colorado's Ryan Spilborghs in the ninth inning Friday night, when he blew a one-run lead in a game the Dodgers eventually won in 13.

"He just had command of his off-speed pitches," Dodgers pitching coach Rick Honeycutt said. "I don't care who you are, it's tough to go out there with just one pitch. It was good to see that he had that backdoor breaking ball and his good slider and was mostly down in the zone. That was a 12-pitch inning, and there were obviously a few innings (earlier) that went longer than what he is used to."

DODGERS 7, MARLINS 6: Although Derek Lowe blew a five-run lead, largely with the help of a two-out error by James Loney in the fifth inning that eventually led to three unearned runs, Jeff Kent came through with a two-out, RBI single in the ninth that finally broke a tie that had existed since the fourth inning. Before that at-bat, Kent was 1-for-8 for the season with two outs and runners in scoring position. At 13-13, the Dodgers are back to .500 for the first time since April 8, when they were 4-4.