Major League Baseball

Hudson leads Dodgers past Diamondbacks

Published Apr. 12, 2009 6:02 a.m. ET

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Orlando Hudson crashed the Arizona Diamondbacks' All-Star party on Saturday night, putting a damper on a nice day for his former team.

Hudson homered, doubled and drove in three runs, and the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Diamondbacks 11-2 hours after commissioner Bud Selig awarded Arizona the 2011 All-Star game at an afternoon press conference at Chase Field.

Hudson hit his first homer of the season to break a scoreless tie in a three-run fourth inning and added a two-run double in the eighth.

"Those guys are still my family," said Hudson, an All-Star for Arizona in 2007. "Those guys know what I can do. They've seen it for three years. I just wanted to have some quality at-bats and try to help the team win a ballgame."

Hudson spent the previous three seasons in Arizona but left via free agency when there were no substantive contract discussions with the Diamondbacks.

"I have a feeling that when we are playing back here he's pumped up a little bit," Los Angeles manager Joe Torre said.

Emergency Los Angeles starter Eric Stults gave up one run in 5 1-3 innings a day after being recalled from Triple-A Albuquerque to replace Hiroki Kuroda, who was placed on the disabled list after straining his left oblique muscle during a bullpen session Wednesday.

"It looked like he had a better hop on his fastball that maybe we anticipated," Arizona manager Bob Melvin said.

"He kept us off balance, threw to both sides of the plate, (and pitched) in quite a bit to open up away. He pitched a good game."

Stults, whose mother passed away from liver cancer just before spring training, gave up four hits, walked two and struck out five.

"It was tough. Early on it was really hard to really focus on baseball. The death of my mom made me realize what is important," said the left-hander, who had a 9.49 ERA in spring training while losing a competition for the Dodgers' No. 5 starter spot.

"I had her on my heart. I still do. But I realize that for me, my livelihood is baseball. I have to move on. She enjoyed watching it. I know she enjoyed watching me tonight. I know she'll be with me."

Arizona right-hander Yusmeiro Petit, starting for the injured Brandon Webb, struck out six in five innings and retired the first 10 batters he faced before Hudson's homer.

Russell Martin had a two-run double in the fourth and Andre Ethier had a two-run double in a five-run sixth inning.

Manny Ramirez walked and scored twice, and Casey Blake had two hits and drove in a run.

Ramirez was 20-for-32 against Arizona after coming to Los Angeles at the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline in 2008. The Dodgers won seven of the nine games between the two the rest of the way to overtake Arizona and win the NL West by two games.

Ramirez and James Loney walked in the fourth before Martin hit a hard one-hopper through third baseman Mark Reynolds' legs, scoring two runs for a 3-0 lead.

Ramirez and Martin walked around a double by Loney to load the bases against Billy Buckner in the sixth before Ethier doubled off the base of the left-center field wall to make it 5-0.

Matt Kemp had a sacrifice fly, Blake singled through a drawn-in infield and Rafael Furcal had a run-scoring single to finish the five-run inning.

The Diamondbacks scored when Chris Young doubled and Stephen Drew singled with one out in the sixth, knocking out Stults.

Arizona has scored nine runs in each of its two victories, including the first game of the series against the Dodgers on Friday, and four runs combined in its three losses.

Notes

Stults was the Dodgers' sixth starting pitcher in as many games this season. ... Arizona's Justin Upton was called out for running into his bunt in front of the plate in the fifth inning, although replays clearly showed his right foot was still in the batter's box, which should have made the play a foul ball. Melvin argued briefly. ... Juan Pierre replaced Ramirez in left field in the seventh inning, and capped the scoring with an RBI single in the eighth.

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