Dodgers end eight-game losing streak with 7-1 win over Marlins

All things come to an end — even bad things. Like bell bottoms, “Smash” and mood rings, the Dodgers’ losing streak is over.

It ended at eight games Saturday night with a 7-1 victory over the Marlins, though you’ll forgive the Dodgers if the losing felt more like it had stretched over weeks.

This time they jumped out to an early lead, getting a four-hit game from slumping Andre Ethier, three RBI from Skip Schumaker and two from Juan Uribe. They watched Hyun-Jin Ryu hold the Marlins to one run in his 6 2/3 innings. They saw Carl Crawford, Ethier and Schumaker make superb diving catches.

BOX SCORE: Dodgers 7, Miami 1

For one night it all worked. A Dodger Stadium crowd of 42,208 saw the Dodgers pound out 14 hits. They went 5 for 11 with runners in scoring position.

This time there was no painful walkoff hit to suffer from, no bullpen meltdown, no self-destruction of any kind. They remain the last-place Dodgers, but at least no longer one on an unsightly losing streak.

Ryu set the tone early, holding the Marlins scoreless through the first six innings. He gave up a solo home run to Miguel Olivo in the seventh, but that’s all Miami could show for its efforts.

It was another controlled performance by Ryu, who raised his record to 4-2 by holding the Marlins to the one run on five hits. He both walked and struck out three.

The Marlins have the worst record in the National League (11-26), but starter Kevin Slowey had held the Phillies scoreless on two hits in his last start.

But Slowey was in trouble most of Saturday. The Dodgers opened the scoring against him in the second when Ethier collected the first of his two doubles and scored on a Schumaker single.

The Dodgers added two more in the second after a solo home run from that legendary power-hitter Dee Gordon. It was the second of the reed-thin Gordon’s career. Three consecutive hits, led to a Schumaker groundout adding one more to make it a 3-0 game.

The Dodgers scored twice more in the fifth, one on a Schumaker single and another on a Uribe sac fly. Uribe singled in one more in the seventh and Schumaker scored on an Olivo passed ball.

Paco Rodriguez, Matt Guerrier and Javy Guerra pitched scoreless relief, and the Dodgers had that rarest of recent things, a victory.