Penny gets an extra day, and rest is history

CHICAGO -- Brad Penny said he didn’t know if the extra day of rest helped him. Manager Grady Little said he didn’t know either, sarcastically adding that he wasn’t a scientist.

But pitching coach Rick Honeycutt said he noticed Penny’s velocity back to its usual levels, an observation supported by the radar gun, which indicated that the Dodgers’ ace was delivering 95-mph fastballs in the seventh inning of a 6-2 victory over the Chicago Cubs on Tuesday at Wrigley Field.

Penny had the kind of performance that was routine for him in June when his arm wasn’t as tired and his abdominal muscle wasn’t strained, improving to 15-4 by pitching seven innings and giving up seven hits and two runs, only one of which was earned.

Penny, afforded five days of rest because of the insertion of newly acquired Esteban Loaiza into the rotation Monday, responded by forcing the Cubs to ground into four double plays.

“He’s been able to minimize the damage,” Little said of Penny. “That’s why he’s won 15 games.”

And it’s why the Dodgers, who have won seven of their last nine, remained tied in second place in the wild-card race with Philadelphia. The Dodgers and Phillies are three games back of Arizona, which is in a virtual tie atop the National League West with San Diego.

Honeycutt said the recent additions of Loaiza and David Wells could lessen the burden on Penny, Derek Lowe and Chad Billingsley.

“We’ve got some added depth to our starting set that shoulders some of that load that those guys have had to take for the last four to six weeks,” Honeycutt said. “This is the first day Brad’s had an extra day to pitch on in I don’t remember.”

That was July 16, six days after the All-Star game.

Penny has pitched on five days’ rest seven times this season and in only one of those games did he give up more than one run. Take away his eight-run implosion in a loss to the Angels in May and he is 5-0 with an earned-run average of 0.85 when pitching under such conditions.

But this is no time for rest, as Penny said he could be pitching on shorter rest.

Little’s only complaint Tuesday concerned the Dodgers’ troubles on the basepaths.

Matt Kemp, who has had several baserunning errors recently, was picked off at first in the first inning. Russell Martin and Juan Pierre were thrown out at the plate. Martin was doubled off at first on a line drive to short by James Loney.

But Kemp atoned for his mistake by going four for five with a triple and run scored.

The run was the Dodgers’ first of the game, on Kemp’s second at-bat. He singled, stole second and was driven in on a single by Luis Gonzalez.

“I’m always aggressive,” Kemp said. “You can never not be aggressive, especially when you know you can steal bases. I feel I can turn a walk or single into a double.”

Rookie Andy LaRoche, starting at third base in place of injured Nomar Garciaparra, also was able to make up for an error, in his case a sixth-inning grounder by Aramis Ramirez that went through his legs. Ramirez later scored, cutting the Dodgers’ lead to 3-2.

But LaRoche doubled in a run and scored another in the seventh to give the Dodgers a 5-2 edge.

Because the Dodgers have so many young players, Little said, they might be forced to deal with such ups and downs for the remainder of the season.

“You’ll probably see a little bit of it,” he said.

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