Penny Is Money in Blank

Brad Penny will have a long way to go to work his way into the hearts of Dodger fans enraged by the trade of popular catcher Paul Lo Duca, but the pitcher considered critical to the team’s postseason hopes did his best to win a few more supporters in rousing fashion.

In his first start with his new club, Penny gave up only two hits over eight shutout innings in the Dodgers’ 3-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Tuesday night at Dodger Stadium.

The right-hander, big in size and talent, showed his new team why he was the key part of the six-player trade that brought him and first baseman Hee Seop Choi to Los Angeles and sent Lo Duca, setup man Guillermo Mota and right fielder Juan Encarnacion to Florida.

Though he sought to get Randy Johnson before coming up empty, General Manager Paul DePodesta viewed Penny as a starter who could lead the rotation when he pulled off the trade Friday afternoon.

More starts such as this one will earn him status as the staff ace. After being hit hard in the first three innings, Penny settled down and retired the last 10 batters he faced.

“Brad Penny walked in here tonight and pretty much lived up to his billing,” Dodger Manager Jim Tracy said. “I don’t know if you can do much better than what he did tonight.”

With the victory, the Dodgers increased their lead in the National League West to 4 1/2 games. It is their largest lead of the season and biggest margin since they held a five-game lead Aug. 7, 1994, days before the strike hit to wipe out that season.

It was also their third victory in the four games since the flurry of trades, after the critics wondered whether the roster makeover would rip up the chemistry built up over four months.

Penny did his part to ease those concerns. He notched his first win since July 10 against the New York Mets as he went eight innings for the third time this season.

“I was nervous coming into the game today and coming into the stadium for the first time,” Penny said. “It was the kind of feeling like the playoffs for me. We had great team defense today, and [David] Ross did a great job behind the plate.”

Despite throwing 10 or fewer pitches in each of his last four innings, Penny would not get a chance to go for his third career shutout.

Closer Eric Gagne, who had pitched three innings Sunday, made things interesting in the ninth by giving up consecutive run-scoring singles to Rob Mackowiak and Craig Wilson with two out before striking out Jason Bay to notch his 31st save.

Penny defeated the New York Yankees twice in the World Series last year and in five full seasons has built a reputation as a durable pitcher who can eat up innings. He has also been known as a hard thrower who often tired as he reached the seventh inning.

The numbers seem to back up the theory. He had gone past the sixth only once in his last 11 starts and was only 2-6 with a 4.26 earned-run average over that span.

On Tuesday, he showed that he has staying power.

“He’s everything that I used to see from the other side of the field,” Tracy said. “He’s a power arm, a guy that’s capable of dominating you.”

Penny wasn’t the only newcomer who played a big role in the victory. Center fielder Steve Finley, in his first home game as a Dodger, walked twice and scored a run while batting second. He also had two sacrifice bunts.

The Dodger batters gave Penny a good start on Adrian Beltre’s two-out double in the first that scored Cesar Izturis. Shawn Green and Jayson Werth added consecutive run-scoring singles in the third to give Penny some cushion with which to work. Pittsburgh starter Oliver Perez didn’t pitch badly, but he wasn’t nearly as efficient. Perez gave up five hits and struck out 10 in five innings but also walked three and threw 98 pitches.

Penny has had his share of games with high pitch counts, but he needed only 99 pitches in his eight innings.

“He certainly threw the ball well for the time he was out there,” Pirate Manager Lloyd McClendon said of Perez. “He threw it often too. One hundred pitches in five innings just won’t cut it.”