Penny and Dodgers enjoy a walk in park

Two days after declaring that changes might be in store for his sagging offense, Dodgers Manager Grady Little continued to stick with the same lineup Saturday night, saying he was “hoping for a little bit of evolution here.”

The Dodgers responded with an outburst that seemed revolutionary by their standards, and wholly unnecessary given the way Brad Penny dominated the Cincinnati Reds during a 7-3 victory at Dodger Stadium.

Penny pitched 6 1/3 crisp innings, giving up only one run and retiring 17 consecutive batters at one point, while becoming the first Dodgers starter to open a season 5-0 since Kazuhisa Ishii went 6-0 in his first six starts in 2002.

Even though the Dodgers didn’t hit the ball that hard, they got 10 hits and backed Penny with their biggest output since scoring seven runs April 21 against Pittsburgh. The Dodgers had averaged only three runs over their previous 11 games.

Andre Ethier and Juan Pierre drove in two runs apiece for the Dodgers, who logged their eighth consecutive victory against Cincinnati after blowing the game open with a five-run fourth inning against Reds starter Kyle Lohse.

“A lot of pressure has been put on the offense to put up more runs,” Ethier said, “and instead of buckling under the pressure, we responded to it.”

The big inning provided more than enough support for Penny, who pitched superbly even if he could not match the eye-popping results of his last start, when he struck out a career-high 14 batters against Florida on Monday at Dolphin Stadium.

Penny gave up four hits while striking out four and walking one. The right-hander kept his major league-leading earned-run average at 1.39 and set the Reds down in order in the second through sixth innings.

“People are going to say, ‘Oh, he didn’t strike out that many,’ ” Penny said. “I’m more satisfied with not striking people out and getting deeper into the game.”

Josh Hamilton became the first Reds player to reach base since the first inning when he led off the seventh with a single, and Little pulled Penny in favor of Chin-hui Tsao after Adam Dunn singled to put two on with one out.

Tsao retired the next two batters to end the threat. Reliever Joe Beimel surrendered a two-run double to Javier Valentin with two out in the ninth, but Rudy Seanez came on to record the final out.

The Dodgers’ offense fell into a familiar, sleepy pattern in the first few innings. The Dodgers scored a run in the second inning, on Ethier’s sacrifice fly, but stranded three runners through the first three innings and appeared on the verge of stranding two more in the fourth.

Jeff Kent drew a leadoff walk and went to second on Luis Gonzalez’s bloop single down the left-field line, bringing up Russell Martin, the Dodgers’ hottest hitter. But Martin struck out chasing an 82-mph changeup and Ethier grounded out to first, leaving runners on second and third with two out.

That’s when Lohse (1-4) elected to intentionally walk Andy LaRoche and take his chances with Penny. But Lohse couldn’t locate the strike zone, and Penny walked on five pitches to force in Kent and give the Dodgers a 2-1 lead.

Rafael Furcal, Pierre and Nomar Garciaparra followed with singles to increase the advantage to 6-1.

“When you have the type of ballclub we have, you know they’re going to get going sooner or later,” Little said. “We have a lot of good hitters in that lineup, and when they all get going at the same time, somebody’s going to have to pay.”

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ben.bolch@latimes.com