Dodgers get win, another scare

Brad Penny reached base, then reached for his stomach.

But like the groin strain that Derek Lowe worsened while making a similar run down the first-base line the previous evening, what Penny felt in the seventh inning of a 5-4 victory over the Colorado Rockies Thursday night probably won’t cause him to skip any starts.

Penny, who improved to 13-1, had only an abdominal cramp.

Lowe, who was hurt in the last game of a three-game series in Houston, also had encouraging news. He underwent an MRI exam Thursday for which the results won’t be available until today, but he said a strength test suggested that his problem wasn’t serious.

Dodgers Manager Grady Little, who said he had “a few flashbacks” when seeing Penny leg out an infield hit, was relieved.

“With either person,” Little said, “it could be much more serious than what it was.”

That was something Takashi Saito didn’t know when he entered his first game in eight days with a one-run lead to protect in the ninth. The worries he had about his rustiness were replaced by worries about Penny’s condition.

“It made me concentrate on my work,” Saito said.

Saito retired the first two batters he faced, walked Kazuo Matsui, then struck out Matt Holliday to end the game and pick up his 26th save. Saito said he didn’t experience any of the soreness that had sidelined him for a week.

Said Lowe: “You don’t realize the importance of a good closer until he’s gone.”

Little agreed.

“I used to think throughout my career that one of the worst things that could happen to you is that if you have a bona fide closer, is to have this bona fide closer blow a save, like when it happens to a [Trevor] Hoffman or to a Mariano Rivera,” Little said. “But I was completely wrong. The worst thing that can happen is to have the unavailability of the guy for about a week.”

Penny had given up three runs and five hits in six innings at the time of his exit. He moved into a tie for the major league lead in wins and improved to 12-0 against National League teams.

Penny said he could’ve continued if he had been given some time to rest. “I’ve never had a cramp in a game,” he said. “Maybe it was the altitude or something.”

And what was Lowe thinking when he saw Penny pull up? “That we’re not very good athletes,” he said.

Rockies starter Rodrigo Lopez couldn’t remain in the game long enough to pitch to Penny in that inning. On the preceding at-bat, Lopez experienced tightness in his right forearm while striking out Matt Kemp and was pulled.

Lopez faced the minimum number of batters through three innings, but an error by Willy Taveras contributed to three Dodgers runs in the fourth.

Taveras lost a deep fly ball hit by Luis Gonzalez, allowing it to hit the wall in center field and drive in Juan Pierre. Nomar Garciaparra followed with a two-run single to left-center.

The Dodgers added two more runs in the fifth on a home run by Rafael Furcal to right. The home run was the fourth of the season for Furcal, who was two for four.

But a three-hit, two-walk sixth cut the Dodgers’ lead to 5-3.

Brad Hawpe’s third run batted in, on an eighth-inning single, closed the gap to 5-4.

dylan.hernandez@latimes.com