Penny’s Hot, but He Isn’t Angry

The proof was in the pitching.

Toxic residue from Brad Penny’s tantrum, harsh words for his manager and supposed shoulder pain dissipated in the stifling sun as the burly right-hander tossed six scoreless innings in an 8-2 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies.

Penny allowed only a double by Aaron Rowand while throwing 112 pitches Saturday at Dodger Stadium. His pitch count was high because it seemed like half were fouled off.

“Penny must lead the league in foul balls,” Dodgers coach Rich Donnelly said. “I don’t know if they keep the stat, but if they do, he’s the leader.”

The foul mood of six days ago was gone, though. Penny couldn’t get through the fifth inning at Atlanta and lashed out at Grady Little, costing himself a victory and raising questions about putting personal goals ahead of the team.

Penny, your thoughts?

“I shouldn’t have acted that way in the dugout,” he said. “It’s over with and we’ve moved on.”

Little visited Penny on the mound in the fourth Saturday and approached him in the dugout after the fifth, by which time he had thrown 103 pitches.

“I knew I was going to go back out there,” Penny said. “Grady just wanted to make sure I was OK.”

Penny said his shoulder was fine, and it appears he can continue to shoulder the load for the Dodgers, who have won 12 of their last 16 games and eight of nine at home. Penny is 6-1 with a 2.62 earned-run average.

The Dodgers’ offense continued to produce, making it easy on Penny by scoring four runs in the first inning, including two before an out was recorded. Rafael Furcal, Jose Cruz Jr. and Nomar Garciaparra singled to load the bases and J.D. Drew drove in two with a double.

Willy Aybar’s groundout brought home Garciaparra and Drew scored when Joel Guzman’s pop fly to second was lost in the sun by Chase Utley and dropped for a single.

Cruz and Garciaparra -- who had three hits to improve his batting average to .369 -- drove in runs in the fourth and rookie Matt Kemp hit his third home run in as many days, a two-run shot in the seventh.

The Phillies managed only two hits but avoided a shutout by scoring two runs in the eighth against erratic left-handed reliever Tim Hamulack, who struck out four in 1 2/3 innings but walked two, balked and gave up a double to Bobby Abreu.

Hamulack, whose ERA jumped to 6.57 in 24 appearances, will be sent to triple-A Las Vegas today and left-hander Hong-Chih Kuo will be recalled. Kuo broke camp with the Dodgers but struggled, walking 15 and posting a 5.54 ERA in 13 innings. He had an ERA of 3.75 with 18 strikeouts and eight walks in 12 innings at Las Vegas.

The Dodgers hope Kuo shows the same improvement as Jonathan Broxton, a 21-year-old reliever who has an 0.93 ERA after pitching the last 1 1/3 innings against the Phillies. Broxton has 26 strikeouts and six walks in 19 1/3 innings.

Broxton hasn’t minded being overshadowed by hot rookie hitters Kemp, Aybar, Guzman, Russell Martin and Andre Ethier. He’s not even pining for the set-up role to Eric Gagne.

“My goal is to be up here a long time and have a good year, period,” Broxton said. “It’s all about the team winning, no matter what your role is and what decisions are made.”

Penny, it appears, has reached the same conclusion.