Furcal is blazing hot for Dodgers

Milt Stock doesn’t get his name in the paper too often anymore. He played on the Brooklyn Robins in 1925, with guys named Tiny, Jumbo and Rube.

In an otherwise ordinary career, Stock did something extraordinary that year. He had four hits in four consecutive games, a major league record that has stood, unbroken and untied, for 82 years.

Rafael Furcal can tie that record tonight. Furcal had four more hits on Tuesday and drove in three runs as well, sparking the Dodgers to a sloppy 9-7 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals at Dodger Stadium. He’s the first Dodgers player with three consecutive four-hit games since the club moved to Los Angeles in 1958.

That’s four hits Tuesday, four Monday and four Sunday -- and two Saturday. He has 14 hits in his last 16 at-bats.

“I can’t do that on PlayStation,” teammate Luis Gonzalez said. “He’s doing it in real life.”

Said Furcal: “I say thank you God, because this is unbelievable.”

Furcal is batting .297. Four days ago -- that is, 14 hits ago -- he was batting .218.

“Right now, he’s on fire,” Dodgers Manager Grady Little said. “You don’t want to say too much or touch him too much.”

The Dodgers batted around twice in the first three innings, scoring three runs in the first and six in the third. Russell Martin and Andre Ethier drove in two runs apiece, helping the Dodgers end a 10-game losing streak against St. Louis.

Derek Lowe needed 100 pitches to get one out in the sixth inning, and he needed Joe Beimel to get him out of the inning. The Dodgers then asked Hong-Chih Kuo, recalled earlier in the day to relieve the burden on a tired bullpen, to hold a 9-4 lead for an inning or two.

Kuo couldn’t even get two outs. He gave up three runs, forcing the Dodgers to rush Jonathan Broxton into the game in the seventh inning. With the tying runs on base and one out, Broxton struck out Scott Spiezio and Aaron Miles.

Broxton retired the Cardinals in order in the eighth inning. Takashi Saito pitched a perfect ninth inning for his 12th save.

Furcal singled in the first, second and seventh innings. He delivered a bases-loaded triple in the third and flied out in the fifth.

He fell two hits shy of the major league record for hits in three consecutive games -- 14, set by Hall of Famer Wee Willie “Hit ‘Em Where They Ain’t” Keeler in 1897 and tied by the less-acclaimed Mike Benjamin in 1995.

Benjamin, Brett Butler, Tim Salmon and Marcus Giles are the only players with three consecutive four-hit games within the last 55 years.

Furcal started this season late, and slow. He opened the season on the disabled list after spraining his left ankle in a spring training collision. The Dodgers activated him on April 13, and he was batting .203 at the end of April.

“I don’t worry about the first month of the season,” he said. “When you play 162 games, anything can happen. I don’t think you can be in a 162-game struggle.”

So he’ll bat again tonight, shooting for four hits, and history.

“If he only gets two hits, we’ll all be disappointed,” Gonzalez said with a chuckle.

Nonetheless, it could be an award-winning week for Furcal, in half a week.

“He should be pretty much a lock,” Gonzalez said, “for player of the week.”

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bill.shaikin@latimes.com