Lo Duca Stays Hot in Desert

PHOENIX — As is customary on hot days, the Arizona Diamondbacks temporarily closed the roof of Bank One Ballpark several hours before game time Friday night, allowing cool air to percolate through the cavernous stadium.

While the measure reduced the air temperature from a triple-digit reading to a more reasonable 80 degrees by game time, allowing the Diamondbacks to reopen the roof, there was no antidote for the sizzling bat of Paul Lo Duca.

Arizona left fielder Luis Gonzalez extended his glove over the wall in left-center in the seventh inning, taking away a second home run from Lo Duca, but by then the Dodger catcher had already sealed the Diamondbacks’ fate during a 7-3 victory in front of 32,182.

Lo Duca smashed a three-run homer into the Diamondback bullpen in left field during a four-run third that helped the Dodgers rally from an early deficit and open a nine-game trip on a positive note.

Kazuhisa Ishii rebounded from a shaky first to throw five serviceable innings, Milton Bradley drove in two runs and the Dodger bullpen shut down Arizona over the final four innings to improve its major league-low earned-run average to 2.89.

But the big story was Lo Duca, who also singled and finished two for five to raise his batting average to .362. Lo Duca, who is hitting .429 over his last 10 games, is hitting 1.000 against Arizona’s Casey Fossum in five at-bats after going two for two against the left-hander Friday.

Cesar Izturis, who extended his hitting streak to 12 games with a single to right in the first, got things started for the Dodgers in the third with a broken-bat single to left. Izturis was out on Jayson Werth’s fielder’s choice, but Werth went to second on a balk and scored on Bradley’s single to right to pull the Dodgers to within 2-1.

Shawn Green then doubled to left-center, moving Bradley to third, before Lo Duca hit a Fossum pitch for his third homer and second in two games.

Lo Duca had not homered in back-to-back games since Oct. 2-3, 2001, at San Diego.

“If the home runs come, they come,” Lo Duca said. “Still, my approach is to go the other way. I don’t think I’m going to start hitting a lot of home runs again.”

Bradley, playing in his first game since Major League Baseball served him with a four-game suspension for an on-field tirade earlier in the week, gave the Dodgers a 5-1 lead in the fourth with a run-scoring double to right. Bradley has filed an appeal and will not have to sit out any games until his case is heard.

Werth, playing for the first time since opening day because of a strained abdominal muscle, hammered a 436-foot solo homer off the foul pole in left in the ninth.

Ishii got off to another poor start, walking leadoff hitter Scott Hairston on four pitches in the first and giving up a run-scoring double to Danny Bautista. Bautista took third on Bradley’s wild throw from center field and scored on Gonzalez’s single to put the Diamondbacks up, 2-0.

But Ishii (7-3) pitched out of a first-and-second jam in the fourth and stranded two more runners after giving up a run in the fifth to record his second consecutive victory. The left-hander gave up four hits, striking out two and walking six while throwing only 44 of his 84 pitches for strikes.

“He’s just struggling a little bit right now with his tempo,” Lo Duca said. “But he battles and keeps us in games and get wins, so he’s doing something right.”

Said Ishii, through an interpreter: “I should have been more aggressive from the start. That’s what I have to work on. As the starting pitcher, I should be able to work more than five innings.”

Jose Lima, Darren Dreifort and Guillermo Mota held the Diamondbacks scoreless over the final four innings, with Mota working the final two innings and Lima extending his streak without giving up an earned run to 20 2/3 innings.