This time bullpen stumbles as Dodgers lose sixth consecutive interleague game, 5-4

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Not the bullpen. Not that one reliable aspect to the 2010 Dodgers.

Yes, well, reliable but not perfect. Not Saturday afternoon in Fenway Park.

On a day when Manny Ramirez homered, Vicente Padilla made an encouraging return to the rotation and the Red Sox committed four errors, a 4-4 game in the bottom of the ninth ended when Dustin Pedroia singled in the winning run off Jonathan Broxton.

He was the only batter Broxton faced.

The 5-4 loss to the Red Sox means the Dodgers have now dropped six consecutive interleague games.

Jeff Weaver and Hong-Chih Kuo did their part after taking over for Padilla, but Ronald Belisario gave up a single and a walk in the ninth.

Then with two outs the call went to Broxton, who hadn’t pitched six days. He got ahead of Pedroia 1-2 in the count, but then oddly left a fastball over the plate that was lined over first baseman James Loney to drive in the winning run.

Padilla made his first start since April 22, when he took his 6.65 ERA to the disabled list with an inflamed radial nerve in his right elbow.

For someone who had not pitched in almost two months, the Dodgers had to be satisfied with his start. He may not have been brilliant, but he threw hard and mostly had solid command.

He went 5 1/3 innings, allowing four runs on five hits and one walk. He struck out four. He was hurt by the long ball, giving up a two-run homer to Victor Martinez in the fourth and a solo shot to Kevin Youkilis in the sixth.

Manny hit his solo homer off Tim Wakefield in the sixth, but the Dodgers continued to sputter offensively, managing just six hits.

-- Steve Dilbeck