13-0: Dodgers set major league home record start

[May 07, 2009]  LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The Los Angeles Dodgers broke the modern major league record for a home winning streak to start a season with their 13th straight victory, 10-3 over the Washington Nationals on Wednesday night.

Rafael Furcal scored the go-ahead run in the fifth inning on a bases-loaded walk to Andre Ethier, and the Dodgers broke it open with seven in the sixth, including a two-run double by Manny Ramirez and a two-run single by James Loney to surpass the 12-0 record of the 1911 Detroit Tigers.

Washington's Ryan Zimmerman extended his franchise-record hitting streak to 24 games with a single in the first inning.

The Dodgers' seventh straight victory made them a major league-best 21-8 overall, matching their best start since the 1977 club started out 23-6 and won an NL pennant in Tommy Lasorda's first season as manager. The 1983 Dodgers also were 21-8.

The six teams the defending NL West champions have played so far -- San Francisco, Colorado, San Diego, Arizona, Houston and Washington -- have a combined record of 66-94 and none of them are over. 500. The Dodgers have outscored their opponents 88-32 at Chavez Ravine.

Clayton Kershaw (1-2) allowed a run and four hits over five innings and escaped a bases-loaded jam in the first by throwing a called third strike past Austin Kearns.

The Nationals, whose 7-18 mark is the worst in the majors, lost at Dodger Stadium for the 10th straight time since winning on May 4, 2005. They began an eight-game road trip a day after ending their five-game homestand with a suspended game against Houston.

Daniel Cabrera (0-3) gave up five runs -- four earned -- and six hits in 5 1-3 innings. The right-hander, who set a club record with four wild pitches last Thursday in a loss to St. Louis, walked five batters for the second straight start and has issued 18 in 18 2-3 innings over his last four outings.

Reliever Mike Hinkley was also wild -- but only for one pitch, when he walked Orlando Hudson with the bases loaded on a ball that sailed about 30 feet over the head of catcher Jesus Flores and hit the screen.

Zimmerman also had a sacrifice fly in the third. Flores homered in the seventh against Guillermo Mota.

Notes: The 1911 Tigers were 51-25 at home -- but 38-40 on the road -- and finished 13 1/2 out of first place. ... This was the first of five consecutive days in which the Dodgers and Angels are both playing at home. Over the past 29 years, the only time they went an entire season without playing at least once at home on the same day was 2006. ... Torre doesn't think his Yankees successor, Joe Girardi, got a fair shake Monday night when the Yankee Stadium crowd began chanting: "We want Torre" in the ninth inning of a 7-3 loss to the Red Sox. "Those fans are impatient," Torre said. "I feel for Joe because this kid's a good manager and he's going to be a better manager."

[Associated Press]

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