Dodgers shut down White Sox

The circus stopped here too. The Manny Ramirez Experience might have been the talk of Albuquerque, and for that matter Los Angeles, but the rest of the Dodgers had quite a wacky Tuesday evening in Chicago.

Orlando Hudson nearly decapitated the opposing pitcher. Matt Kemp bobbled and juggled a fly ball, then caught it with his bare hand. Jonathan Broxton let Jermaine Dye run wild and free on the bases. Ozzie Guillen got ejected without leaving his dugout, then went out to argue with a smile on his face.

James Loney hit his third home run in four games, after hitting one in the Dodgers’ first 67 games. And, in the most important daily Dodgers development anywhere in North America, Hiroki Kuroda earned his first victory since opening day.

Kuroda starred in the Dodgers’ 5-2 victory over the Chicago White Sox at U.S. Cellular Field, striking out nine and finishing one out shy of a complete game. He retired 16 consecutive batters before giving up consecutive singles with two out in the ninth inning, but Broxton struck out Jim Thome for his 18th save.

Kuroda, on the disabled list from April 7 through June 1, delivered perhaps the finest performance by any Dodgers starter this season. He walked none and got his 26 outs this way: 12 on ground balls, nine on strikeouts, two on pop flies, two on fly balls to the outfield and one on a line drive.

“I’m not really a strikeout pitcher,” Kuroda said through an interpreter. “I try to minimize my pitch count. That’s what I try to emphasize the most.”

The White Sox were aggressive, which played into his hands since he had outstanding command of a sinker the Dodgers had reminded him not to overthrow.

Dodgers starters not named Chad Billingsley or Randy Wolf have completed six innings in nine of 41 games. The Dodgers are counting on Kuroda to do that regularly.

“The more guys who do it, the less stress on the guys who try to do it,” Manager Joe Torre said. “I don’t want to say we’ve stretched our bullpen, but we’ve relied on our bullpen a great deal.

“The bullpen has been carrying a big part of the load. It’s nice to see a guy like Kuroda pitch the way he did.”

Loney’s home run -- a two-run shot in the second inning that staked Kuroda to a 3-0 lead -- put the first baseman on pace to hit 11 home runs and drive in 112 runs.

As of six days ago, Loney was on pace for five home runs and 106 runs batted in.

“He’s the most unpredictable guy I’ve ever been around,” Torre said. “He’ll have some ugly swings, and all of a sudden there it is.”

In the fifth inning, Kemp ran down a fly ball, bobbled it and finally caught it with his bare hand.

“It was rolling in my glove,” he said. “It kept popping out. I’m just glad I caught it.”

In the sixth inning, Hudson swung and missed, and his bat went flying. If pitcher John Danks had not ducked, the bat probably would have hit him, and Hudson threw his hands up in horror.

“I’ve hit a few balls like that,” he said, “but not with a bat.”

And, with two out in the ninth inning and the Dodgers up by three runs, Broxton did not hold Dye on second base.

Dye got to third base before Broxton delivered the ball, so the White Sox had their laugh. But Broxton struck out Thome, and the Dodgers had the last laugh.

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bill.shaikin@latimes.com