Stults finishes job for Dodgers

Eric Stults figured his night was over. The manager had told him so.

But Russell Martin wouldn’t hear of it.

Sitting on the bench after the top of the eighth inning at Dodger Stadium, Stults watched as the catcher said something to Joe Torre. Then he saw Torre approach him.

“One man at a time,” Torre told him.

With that, Stults was sent out to put the finishing touches on the magnum opus of his major league career, a complete-game shutout of the Chicago White Sox in a 5-0 victory for the Dodgers on Wednesday that put them within three games of first-place Arizona in the National League West.

“We needed this complete game to lift us up a little bit,” Martin said.

The complete-game shutout was the Dodgers’ second of the season, the other being Hiroki Kuroda’s on June 6 against the other team from Chicago.

Only last week, when Torre was asked about Stults, he said he remembered seeing his name in a couple of box scores.

Wednesday, he laughed as he recalled watching the unassuming left-hander warm up for the first start of his latest big-league call-up six days earlier in Cincinnati. The first two pitches were in the dirt.

Torre said he looked at third base coach Larry Bowa and that Bowa looked back at him.

“We’ll see,” Torre said he told Bowa.

Turned out the replacement for the sidelined Brad Penny was more impressive in person than he was in small print.

By limiting the White Sox to four hits and a walk, Stults (2-0) lowered his earned-run average to 0.60. His two wins this season doubled his career total, as he was 2-4 over 18 games, including seven starts, in previous seasons.

Entering his seventh year of pro ball, Stults said he went into the spring understanding that time wasn’t on his side.

“When you’re 28, you don’t think you’re old, but when you’re in an organization with a ton of young talent, you have to take every outing seriously,” he said.

He didn’t make the club out of camp, but spent his time with triple-A Las Vegas adopting a new mind-set. No more avoiding contact, he told himself. Be aggressive.

“He’s got a calmness about him,” Torre observed.

Including at the plate.

Torre instructed No. 8 hitter Angel Berroa to bunt Blake DeWitt to third in the fourth inning with Stults, a capable hitter, on deck. Stults, who properly executed a hit-and-run last week in Cincinnati, drove a ball to right field for a sacrifice fly that brought DeWitt home for the Dodgers’ final run.

The run was the Dodgers’ third of the inning, as DeWitt doubled to right to drive in James Loney and Matt Kemp.

The Dodgers handed Stults a 2-0 lead in the first inning. Juan Pierre scored on a single by Andre Ethier, who was driven in by Martin.

Gavin Floyd (8-4) entered the game as the winner of his previous four decisions, but the Dodgers tagged him for five runs (four earned) and six hits over 5 1/3 innings.

The way Stults pitched will leave him with a difficult decision, Torre conceded, once Penny or Kuroda are ready to be activated from the disabled list.

So how hard was it for Martin to convince Torre to leave Stults in the game?

“Not very,” Martin said

So does he think he’ll be able to talk Torre out of giving him the days off that he loathes so much? Martin laughed.

“Maybe,” he said. “I’m going to keep trying.”

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dylan.hernandez@latimes.com