Lo Duca’s Bat Running Hot

For someone who enjoys being part of the group, Paul Lo Duca sure has been setting himself apart from the Dodgers these days.

Lo Duca continued to move further away from his struggling teammates at the plate, extending his career-high hitting streak to 20 games Thursday night in a 3-2 interleague victory over the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park.

“It feels good and I’m happy,” said Lo Duca, batting .425 (34 for 80) during the streak.

“I’m really not thinking about it, I’m just trying to put the ball in play and put good swings on the ball. Hopefully, I can keep it going.”

A 1-hour 51-minute rain delay didn’t bother Lo Duca, whose strong overall performance helped the Dodgers complete a three-game sweep of the lowly Tigers before 13,644.

Lo Duca’s fifth-inning, run-scoring single broke a 2-2 tie and moved him ahead of Mike Piazza and Mike Blowers, who hit in 19 consecutive games in 1996.

His streak is the longest by a Dodger since 1991, when Brett Butler hit in 23 in a row. Willie Davis has the franchise record of 31 straight in 1969.

The much-maligned catcher also had a good night behind the plate, throwing out two of three Tigers attempting to steal and guiding starter Kazuhisa Ishii (6-2) through a 55-strike 55-ball outing.

With Lo Duca’s help, Ishii managed to work seven innings despite walking six and going deep in the count on seemingly every batter.

“You’ve got to just have faith in him,” pitching coach Jim Colborn said of Ishii. “He’s a winner and he keeps doing it.”

The Dodger bullpen was typically efficient. Paul Shuey pitched a scoreless eighth in front of closer Eric Gagne, who extended his own impressive streak.

Gagne worked his third 1-2-3 inning in as many nights, saving every victory in the sweep. He remained perfect in 24 opportunities this season, and has converted 32 in succession spanning two seasons.

Gagne has retired 23 consecutive batters, 12 by strikeout.

The Dodgers (37-28) expressed relief after sending the Tigers (16-47) to their seventh consecutive loss despite producing only three runs in every game.

They had as many hits (10) Thursday as in the first two games combined, and the hot-hitting Lo Duca is making a timely contribution, so those are positives for the National League’s worst offense.

“He’s hitting really good,” Gagne said of Lo Duca. “He’s getting a lot of RBIs and he’s calling really good ballgames, and we need that.”

Cesar Izturis singled to start the fifth and moved into scoring position on Dave Roberts’ sacrifice bunt.

That’s a good spot for Lo Duca, who began Thursday’s game batting .361 with runners in scoring position.

Lo Duca lined a single to center against 20-year-old Tiger starter Jeremy Bonderman (2-9), closing the scoring in a series between clubs at the bottom of the majors in run production.

“That kid’s got really good stuff,” said Lo Duca, leading Dodger regulars with a .329 batting average. “I was sitting on a slider, and I still hit it a little bit off the end of the bat. It just happened to land in the right spot.”

Lo Duca might have done his best work with Ishii, who has victories in his last two starts. Ishii gave up five hits, two runs and had eight strikeouts.

“Lo Duca hit the ball good, but he caught a great ballgame,” said bench coach Jim Riggleman, who shared managing duties with Colborn and third base coach Glenn Hoffman while Manager Jim Tracy attended the graduation of his middle son, Chad, from Claremont High.

Lo Duca has come under fire for leading big-league catchers with 10 errors. But he began the game third in the NL with a 35.9% success rate throwing out runners.

“He’s been working on [his defense] a lot,” Gagne said of Lo Duca. “He’s got a lot of pride in what he does on the field, and a lot of people are talking about his weaknesses on the field. He’s been working on it.”