LOS ANGELES (AP) - The Flyin' Hawaiian, indeed.
Shane Victorino scored three runs, one when he came home all the way from first base on a single, and also stole a base in his best game so far with the Los Angeles Dodgers, helping them to a 6-3 victory over the Colorado Rockies on Wednesday.
Victorino, a St. Anthony High School graduate, finished 3-for-4 - he had been 5-for-25 in his first six games with Los Angeles since being traded from the Philadelphia Phillies last week.
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The Dodgers’ Shane Victorino follows through on a single in the fifth inning of Los Angeles’ 6-3 victory over the Colorado Rockies on Wednesday.
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"He's been a game-changer," said Chad Billingsley (8-9), who won his fourth straight start. "He gets key hits, steals bases and can hit the ball out of the ballpark. It's good to have him at the top of the lineup."
The Dodgers stayed 1 1/2 games behind the San Francisco Giants in the National League West.
Colorado took an early lead when Eric Young Jr. led off the game with an inside-the-park home run, but in the bottom of the first inning, Victorino led off with a single and Matt Kemp later hit his 17th home run of the season - the three-run drive was his first homer with more than one runner on base this year.
"I got a good pitch to hit," Kemp said of his shot to left field off Jeff Francis. "I really haven't been hitting too well with runners in scoring position the last couple of days, so I needed to do something to help us get the momentum going. We haven't been getting runs in the first couple of innings, so we definitely got to start putting runs on the board early and put pressure on the other team. The home run put some runs on the board early and gave Chad a little cushion."
Victorino scored in the fifth when Carlos Torres (1-1) issued a four-pitch walk to Hanley Ramirez with the bases full.
In the sixth, Victorino hit an RBI single, and came home on a base hit by the next batter, Mark Ellis.
The Rockies have been outscored 17-4 in the first inning during Francis' 13 starts.
"I'm happy with my preparation, but my execution at times has been pretty bad and has cost me," said the left-hander, 1-3 with a 6.89 ERA over his last seven outings.
