Major League Baseball

Dodgers halt 8-game losing streak

Published May. 11, 2013 1:00 a.m. ET

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Just when the Miami Marlins were starting to think that Kevin Slowey had taken a huge step forward, he ended up taking another step backward.

Slowey gave up five runs, 11 hits and three walks over 4 2-3 innings in a 7-1 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Saturday night and did not strike out any of the 27 batters he faced.

''There will be those games over the course of the season, and you hope to survive it probably a little better than I did today,'' Slowey said. ''I made some good pitches that they were able to fight off into the outfield. And when I left the ball over the plate, they hit it pretty well. I had opportunities to get out of some innings, and work around some walks. I just have to execute a little better earlier in counts.''

Slowey (1-3) has a 2.55 ERA in his first eight starts with the Marlins after signing minor league contract in January. The six-year veteran right-hander didn't pitch in the majors last season and was limited to eight starts with Cleveland's Triple-A team in Columbus because of a broken rib.

''Today, you could tell he was battling from the start. But he went out there and continued to compete and tried to keep us in the game,'' Marlins manager Mike Redmond said. ''Today was a little bump in the road. Offensively, we didn't really get anything going either.''

Slowey, who pitched seven scoreless innings of two-hit ball in a 14-2 rout at Philadelphia, hasn't won consecutive starts since Sept. 12-18, 2010 with Minnesota. In 17 big league starts since then, he is 1-12 with a 5.27 ERA - including a stretch of 15 consecutive winless starts that ended in his previous outing.

''We just went in there against him being ready to hit,'' Dodgers first baseman Adrian Gonzalez said. ''He's got a sneaky fastball, and we knew it going in from the guys that have already faced him. Don't let the radar gun fool you. Even though it's in the 80s to low 90s, it feels harder. It plays harder. He's not the kind of guy you want to let get the ball deep on you because it'll be by you. So you have to treat him like a hard thrower.''

Hyun-Jin Ryu (4-2) allowed one run and five hits in 6 2-3 innings. The left-hander took a three-hit shutout into the seventh before Miguel Olivo homered.

''He got everything going,'' Olivo said. ''When a pitcher has control over four pitches, you don't know what he is going to throw. He threw his pitches in every count, in every situation. That's why he did a good job. They played good defense today. You have to give credit to them today.''

Skip Schumaker, starting at second base for the sixth time in 13 games while Mark Ellis has been sidelined with a right quad strain, turned in the defensive play of the game in the fifth - robbing Matt Diaz of hit with a diving stop in the hole and throwing him out with runners at first and second to end a Marlins threat.

''(Dodgers third base coach) Tim Wallach moved me the pitch before. He's always looking at charts and he's right on top of everything,'' Schumaker said. ''We've got a helluva coaching staff, and for him to do that right before the pitch shows me how prepared he is and how prepared they are. And it worked out. I'm glad he moved me just one step and not a couple of steps because it made me look better.''

Andre Ethier had a pair of doubles among his season-high four hits, Dee Gordon hit a rare home run to help the Dodgers snap an eight-game losing streak.

Ethier's four-hit game was his first since last Aug. 24-25, when he had back-to-back four-hit efforts against the Marlins at Dodger Stadium - each of which included a home run. The two-time All-Star is batting .403 against the Marlins in during his eight-year career.

Ethier led off the Dodgers' second with a double, ending a drought of 30 at-bats between extra-base hits. He advanced on A.J. Ellis' first sacrifice bunt of the season and scored the game's first run on a broken-bat bloop single by Schumaker.

Gordon led off the third with a drive that just cleared the fence in right-center. It was his second homer in the big leagues and first since May 1, 2012.

In the bottom half, Schumaker singled home a run and Juan Uribe hit a sacrifice fly to extend the Dodgers' lead to 5-0. The Dodgers tacked on two more runs in the seventh against A.J. Ramos with Uribe's RBI single and a passed ball by Olivo that let Ethier score.

NOTES: The only time in his career that Slowey allowed more hits was April 13, 2009, when he gave up 13 against Toronto. ... Ethier, a 2011 Gold Glove winner in right field, robbed Diaz of extra bases in the eighth with a diving catch in the alley. ... Olivo has three home runs in his last four games against the Dodgers. ... Kemp is two hits shy of 1,000.

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