Dodgers pick up a Penny and feel much richer for it

SAN FRANCISCO – He hadn’t pitched in eight weeks and wasn’t on the mound for long.

However, the Brad Penny who held the San Francisco Giants to a run and a hit in five innings Friday night at AT&T Park in the Dodgers’ 6-2 victory more closely resembled the All-Star who earned the right to be the opening day starter than the stiff-shouldered right-hander who lumbered through the first 2 1/2 months of the season.

The victory ended an eight-game winless streak for Penny (6-9), who last won May 2 in Colorado, and moved the Dodgers to within a half a game of first-place Arizona in the NL West.

At a time when the two most consistent members of the Dodgers’ rotation in recent weeks have been 23-year-old Chad Billingsley and 20-year-old Clayton Kershaw, Manager Joe Torre welcomed back the 30-year-old Penny, admittedly uncertain of what he would find.

“I’m anxious to watch him pitch tonight,” Torre said in the hours leading up to the game.

The first inning was Penny’s roughest, a laborious 22-pitch effort in which he walked two and gave up a run-scoring double to Bengie Molina that put the Dodgers behind, 1-0.

Penny had few troubles after that, as he faced only one batter over the minimum over the next four innings and left the game with a pitch count of 76. He gave up one hit from the second inning through the fifth, the only other Giant to reach base doing so on a throwing error by Jeff Kent.

Pitching in the cold – the game-time temperature was 59 degrees – Penny’s fastball was clocked in the upper-80s to low-90s. He didn’t record a strikeout and walked three.

Torre opted to field a lineup consisting exclusively of right-handed bats, as the Dodgers were facing left-hander Barry Zito, who broke from the mediocre and often poor form that has marked his two seasons in San Francisco when they faced him July 5. Zito struck out 10 batters for the first time as a Giant that night, limiting the Dodgers to two runs over 7 1/3 innings.

Kent, three for four the previous day in St. Louis hitting in front of Ramirez, was kept in the No. 3 spot and responded with one-for-three night that included a walk and a bases-clearing double that broke the game open in a five-run third inning.

James Loney, who was one for 14 lifetime against Zito, had the day off, his place in the batting order and on the field taken by Casey Blake. Blake hit fifth and played first base, a position the Dodgers’ everyday third baseman played 27 games with Cleveland this season. Russell Martin played third and hit second, with backup catcher Danny Ardoin getting to start in back-to-back games for the first time this season.

Andruw Jones received his first start in a week, as left-handed Andre Ethier and Juan Pierre sat.

Ramirez had his first hitless game as a Dodger, but that didn’t prevent the Dodgers from pounding the Giants’ $126 million pitcher for five hits in their five-run third.

The charge started with Ardoin’s first home run in two seasons, an unexpected line-drive shot to left that extended the Dodgers’ home run streak to a season-best six games. Ardoin, who has started only 10 games, had his finest day of the season at the plate as he was one for two with a walk and was hit by a pitch.

Singles by Penny and Matt Kemp, followed by a walk by Martin, loaded the bases, setting up a bases-clearing double by Kent that put the Dodgers ahead, 4-1. Kent later scored on a double to left-center by Angel Berroa.

With Zito (6-14) out of the game, Blake extended the Dodgers’ lead to 6-1 by taking Keiichi Yabu deep over the left-field wall.

 dylan.hernandez@latimes.com