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 Fukudome opened the scoring with a solo homer and drove in the game-winning run against Dodgers closer Takashi Saito.
The Cubs have won 10 of 11 and lead the majors with a 39-22 record, their best start since 1977 when they had an identical record. They began this recent surge with a three-game sweep of the Dodgers at Wrigley Field, and are 17-3 against NL West teams.
Ryan Theriot opened the ninth with a double down the right-field line against Saito (3-2). One out later, Aramis Ramirez was hit by a pitch on the hand
-- or at least umpire Eric Cooper thought so -- and manager Joe Torre argued to no avail along with catcher Russell Martin. Fukudome followed with a single to right field on a 2-2 pitch.
Jeff Kent helped the Dodgers overcome a two-run deficit with solo homers his last two times up. He sent a 3-1 pitch from Ryan Dempster into the lower seats in the left-field corner with one out in the sixth, then drove Bob Howry's 1-1 pitch over the left-field wall with two outs in the eighth for his eighth homer of the season and 373rd of his career.
The five-time All-Star, whose 347 homers by a second baseman are a major league record, recorded his 20th multihomer game and first since Sept. 9, 2007, at San Francisco.
Howry (2-2) earned the victory after pitching one inning. Kerry Wood, the fifth Cubs pitcher, escaped his own bases-loaded jam in the ninth by striking out Matt Kemp to record his 17th save in 21 chances.
Kemp, who appealed the four-game suspension he received Thursday from major league baseball for tussling with Colorado catcher Yorvit Torrealba and touching off a bench-clearing incident on Tuesday night, robbed Ramirez of extra bases with a diving catch in left-center in the fifth inning.
Dempster allowed three runs and five hits in 5 1-3 innings in his 400th big league appearance. The right-hander faced one more batter and walked Martin before Neal Cotts relieved him and got James Loney to hit into an inning-ending double play. Loney has grounded into 12 of them, the most in the NL.
Chad Billingsley allowed four runs and seven hits over five innings, striking out eight and walking three. The right-hander had allowed just nine earned runs in 45 innings over his previous seven starts.
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The solo homers by Fukudome and Mark DeRosa helped stake Dempster to a 4-0 lead through four innings.
Alfonso Soriano singled in the third inning and scored Chicago's second run on a bases-loaded groundout by Ramirez. An intentional walk to Fukudome reloaded the bases for Geovany Soto, who struck out.
Dempster followed DeRosa's fourth-inning homer with a double to left-center and scored Chicago's fourth run on a two-out single by Theriot.
The Dodgers didn't get a hit until Andre Ethier's ground-rule double with one out in the fourth. Ethier was left stranded, but the Dodgers sliced Chicago's lead to 4-2 in the fifth when rookie Blake DeWitt doubled, Chin-lung Hu tripled into the right-field corner and pinch-hitter Mark Sweeney delivered an RBI single while batting for Billingsley.
Notes: The Dodgers selected RHP Ethan Martin of Stephens County (Ga.) High School with the 15th overall pick in Thursday's draft. Their past five No. 1 picks all have been high school pitchers, including Billingsley (2003) and Clayton Kershaw (2006). ... The Cubs selected RHP Andrew Cashner with the 19th overall pick. He was drafted last year by the Cubs in the 29th round, but chose to attend TCU.
[Associated Press]
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