Kuroda Dodges Bat, Cruises in Easy Win Over Giants

Hiroki Kuroda is back in his groove and Casey Blake, too. That does a whole lot for the Dodgers’ confidence during the stretch run.

So does a rout of the archrival Giants in September.

Kuroda dodged the barrel of a broken bat that flew in his direction and retired 19 straight during one stretch, Blake homered and Los Angeles matched its 2008 win total by beating San Francisco 10-3 on Friday night.

The Dodgers (84-58) maintained a two-game division lead over Colorado, which rallied to win at San Diego. The Rockies extended their NL wild-card lead to 5½ games over the Giants.

“Any time you come in here and win like that it’s big for our confidence,” Blake said. “We can’t control what Colorado’s doing.”

Kuroda (6-6), making just his second start since missing three weeks after sustaining a concussion Aug. 15 when hit in the head by a line drive, quickly ducked out of the way and off the mound when Matt Cain’s bat splintered on his third-inning groundout and sailed onto the dirt past second base. That had to be a frightening moment for the right-hander, who gave up two hits to start the second then got 19 straight outs before John Bowker’s one-out triple in the eighth.

“At first I didn’t know if it was a ball or bat coming at me,” Kuroda said through an interpreter. “Since I got a ball hit at my head, I didn’t think a bat could get there that fast. If I get hit by a bat, I think I’m going to retire.”

Blake returned to the lineup following a five-game absence with a hamstring injury and hit a two-run homer in the sixth inning and James Loney drove in three runs for the first-place Dodgers, who won for the third time in four games.

Kuroda is showing the kind of form that made him so good down the stretch last year, when he also won a game in the NL division series against the Cubs.

“This year I had to go through a lot,” he said. “I had to go on the disabled list twice and got hit in the head for the first time in 13 years. … I was able to keep a really good rhythm this game, close to what I had last year. Of course I would like to finish as strong as I did last year.”

He struck out five and didn’t walk a batter in eight efficient innings to win for the third time in his last four decisions, bouncing back from a loss to San Diego on Sept. 6. He threw 86 pitches, 55 strikes.

9/12/2009 5:07 AM JANIE McCAULEY, AP Sports Writer SAN FRANCISCO