--CF Andruw Jones, who has driven in at least 90 runs in each of the past eight seasons, singled home Angel Berroa with one out in the seventh inning, giving him nine RBIs for the year. He is now four for 19 with two RBIs, a walk and five strikeouts in six games since returning from a five-week stint on the disabled list Friday.
--INF Mark Sweeney, who is on the 15-day disabled list with a strained right hamstring, will begin a minor-league rehabilitation assignment at Class AAA Las Vegas on Thursday. Sweeney, second on the all-time list for pinch hits, is hitting just .094 this season. He was in danger of being designated for assignment when the club needed to clear a roster spot for INF Nomar Garciaparra, but the injury might have saved his job for now. --RHP Derek Lowe used his sinkerball to record 16 groundball outs. He also struck out four and allowed only four balls to be hit in the air, one of them a home run by Jeff Francoeur. Lowe made it through 7 2/3 innings on just 85 pitches.
--OF Matt Kemp went 2-for-4 with a home run and a single. It was a breakout performance for Kemp, who had just eight hits in 40 at-bats coming into this game. He now has 47 RBIs, second on the club only to James Loney, who has 48.
--RHP Takashi Saito pitched a perfect ninth inning for his 17th save and his ninth in the club's past 19 games. Saito now has nine saves in his past 11 appearances and is just five saves shy of Jay Howell for sixth on the all-time Los Angeles Dodgers career saves list. Saito has 80 saves, while Howell had 85.
BY THE NUMBERS: 12 -- Runs scored by the Dodgers in the first innings of their past nine road games, seven of which have been victories. The Dodgers have scored in the first inning of all but one of those nine games, outscoring their hosts 12-5 in the process. The only game in which they didn't score in the first inning was on July 4 at San Francisco, a game in which they otherwise exploded for 10 runs. Overall, the Dodgers are outscoring their opponents 64-45 in the first.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "Any way you want to spin it, I'm getting sent down. They can say they didn't have enough room, but they (brought) me up when they didn't have enough room. All those guys were healthy then. ... Pitching-wise, I don't think I did great by any means, but I don't think I did badly, either. I just wasn't good enough to stick around." -- Dodgers rookie LHP Clayton Kershaw, after unexpectedly being optioned to Class AA Jacksonville last week.
