Garciaparra Drives Dodgers, 14-5

The knee is playable, and that is about as good as it will get for now. The knee will not get better without prolonged rest, and that is what November is for.

As the Dodgers took another step toward October, Nomar Garciaparra took two big steps toward recovering his stroke before they get there. He drove in six runs Saturday, powering the Dodgers to a 14-5 win over the Colorado Rockies at Dodger Stadium.

The slump isn’t necessarily gone. The residue of the injury lingers. But, on this night, Garciaparra resembled the player who challenged for the batting title in the first half of the season. With a three-run home run and a bases-loaded double, Garciaparra produced two extra-base hits in a game for the first time since July 18 and drove in more runs than he had in any game in four years.

“I’m concerned about winning,” he said. “That’s all I care about.”

The first-place Dodgers won their seventh consecutive game and moved 11 games over .500, passing St. Louis for the second-best record in the National League.

They batted around twice, scoring five runs in the third inning and six in the sixth, an inning in which Julio Lugo batted twice as a pinch-hitter. J.D. Drew homered and scored three runs, James Loney hit his first major league home run, and Brad Penny set a career high with his 15th victory, pitching five shutout innings before the Rockies shelled him in the sixth.

Mark Hendrickson pitched the eighth inning, in his first relief appearance in four years. Hendrickson has won once in 11 starts since the Dodgers acquired him in June, but Manager Grady Little said Hendrickson simply needed an inning of work and would start Tuesday as scheduled.

Penny became the answer to a trivia question, as the first pitcher to beat the Rockies five times in one season.

He is the first 15-game winner in the NL this season -- 5-0 with a 1.91 earned-run average against Colorado, 10-7 with a 4.49 ERA against the rest of the league.

And, for the Dodgers faithful, how about a sign? Penny is the first Dodger to beat an opponent five times in one season since Orel Hershiser defeated Atlanta five times in 1988 en route to a World Series title.

Not that Garciaparra is hobbling to the plate a la Kirk Gibson, but he said he can’t move laterally without discomfort.

“Running straight is fine,” he said. “With certain things, it still catches.”

Garciaparra played in the All-Star game, the proud owner of a .358 average. He started play Saturday hitting .205 since the All-Star break. And he had three extra-base hits in 73 at-bats since Aug. 9, when he returned after sitting out two weeks because of a sprained right knee.

“He’s never been able to get going since he hurt the knee,” Little said before the game.

But he worked extensively with hitting coach Eddie Murray Saturday afternoon, and Garciaparra said he made a modest adjustment in his stance, in the position of his hands.

The home run was great, the double was nice, but Garciaparra insisted he treasured most his ground ball to the right side in the second inning, moving Jeff Kent from second base to third.

“My favorite at-bat today,” he said. “I did my job.”

Garciaparra often swings at the first pitch. On Saturday, he hit two ground balls on the first pitch, hit the home run on a 1-and-1 pitch, and doubled on an 0-and-2 pitch.

Little rejected the suggestion that Garciaparra might find his way out of his slump by taking more pitches.

“Ask a guy to do something he’s never done in his career? That doesn’t make sense to me,” Little said.

“I’ve done it for however many years, and it’s gotten me to this point,” Garciaparra said. “Why change?”

DODGERS REPORT, BOX SCORE, D7