Dodgers battle through fatigue

This is the time of the season to pitch on three days’ rest, as Brad Penny did Sunday. To squat behind home plate for 23 innings in 21 grueling hours, as Russell Martin did. Or to break out of a season-long slump, the way Ramon Martinez did.

Repelling fatigue and an eighth-inning deficit, the Dodgers came from behind to beat the Colorado Rockies, 4-3, at Dodger Stadium and claim what Manager Grady Little called his team’s most important win of the season.

The seldom-used and seldom-hitting Martinez was two for four and drove in three runs, including two in the bottom of the eighth on a line-drive single to center with the bases loaded, allowing the Dodgers to win for the fourth time in their last five games. Takashi Saito struck out the side in the ninth to record his 33rd save.

Little’s once free-falling team moved ahead of the Rockies into third place in the National League West and remained within 2 1/2 games of the San Diego Padres in the wild-card race.

Martin agreed with Little’s proclamation about the significance of the win.

“It’s our biggest win until the next one,” Martin said.

Next, the Dodgers will visit wild-card contender Philadelphia for a three-game series that starts Tuesday, followed by a three-game set against the Mets in New York.

“Our fight starts here,” Saito said. “We need to string wins together.”

The Dodgers play 16 of their next 19 games on the road, a stretch they enter on an upswing. Behind them are the inexplicable troubles at the plate that saw them start the month going five for 90 with runners in scoring position.

Taking two of three games from the Rockies to win their first series in a month required the Dodgers to not only hit but ignore their sore legs and arms.

For Martin, that meant coming back from catching all 14 innings of a heartbreaking loss the previous night.

Penny also came back on reduced rest and limited the Rockies to one run over five draining innings in which he threw 111 pitches. Seventeen of those pitches were thrown to Cory Sullivan over an eight-minute at-bat in the third that ended with fly out to left.

Penny started the next inning by loading the bases, but the defense helped him limit the damage to a run. Juan Pierre made a diving catch to turn a potential multi-RBI hit by Brad Hawpe into a sacrifice fly that scored only Matt Holliday.

On the next at-bat, Rafael Furcal fielded a single to shallow center by Troy Tulowitzki and threw out Todd Helton, who had prematurely rounded third.

“Those guys are driving in runs with their defense,” Little said.

But the Dodgers were ahead, 2-1, at that point, having scored in the first inning on a sacrifice fly by Matt Kemp and in the second on an RBI single by Martinez.

That edge disappeared in the top of the eighth, when Scott Proctor served up a two-run home run to Helton.

Proctor later used an expletive to summarize his performance.

Martinez, who spent most of June on the disabled list and entered the game hitting .168, put the Dodgers back on top. The start Sunday was his 14th of the season.

“I’ve been trying to find a rhythm,” said Martinez, pointing to the extra batting practice he has taken under the supervision of coaches Bill Mueller and Manny Mota.

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dylan.hernandez@latimes.com