Dodgers Go Out for a Test Drive

MIAMI — The new-look Dodgers eagerly traveled east to test themselves against the World Series champion Florida Marlins.

And while early results don’t guarantee success, the Dodgers said they deserved high marks Thursday night after a 9-4 victory at Pro Player Stadium.

They finished strong with their second victory in the three-game series before 16,109, connecting for four home runs -- two by Shawn Green -- among 14 hits and pleasing their manager.

“As I said in Los Angeles, before we left to go on this trip, we were coming here to play the defending world champions, and I used the word ‘test,’ ” Jim Tracy said. “I said that we were going to get a good test. As far as I’m concerned, we passed that test.”

Green helped the Dodgers start Thursday’s exam well with a towering three-run homer to left-center in the first against Marlin starter Dontrelle Willis, and added a solo blast in the seventh for his 24th career multi-homer game.

Juan Encarnacion also homered in the seventh, giving the Dodgers an 8-2 lead against the team he had helped to defeat the New York Yankees in the 2003 World Series. And Milton Bradley completed the resurgence of the middle of the Dodger batting order, contributing a solo homer.

Kazuhisa Ishii (5-1) continued his impressive run, pitching into the seventh in winning for the third time in as many starts. Tracy turned to closer Eric Gagne to get the final out after Brian Falkenborg worked into a bases-loaded, two-out jam, and Gagne induced a game-ending grounder from Jeff Conine to record his ninth save of 2004 and major league-record 72nd in a row.

Then the Dodgers savored an early moment.

“They’re a great ballclub, so this was a good series for us,” said Green, who hit his sixth and seventh homers. “They’re better than I thought they’d be this year after losing” catcher Ivan Rodriguez and Encarnacion. “Their staff is incredible.”

The Dodgers applied early pressure against Willis (3-1), who is 0-1 with a 9.75 earned-run average in his last three outings. Green’s three-run homer set the tone, and the switch-hitting Bradley, batting right-handed, hit his fifth as the Dodgers took a 5-2 lead in the fifth.

Bradley, Green and Encarnacion, who also has five homers, went hitless in 21 at-bats in the first two games against Florida. On Thursday, the trio combined for four homers and eight runs batted in.

“Offensively, that’s what we hadn’t been getting here,” Tracy said. “When we get base hits from the middle of the order, we’re going to score runs.”

And then there’s Ishii. The left-hander righted himself after his command eluded him in Florida’s two-run second. Ishii walked two, including Willis, with two out, creating a bases-loaded situation that the Marlins exploited, getting a two-run double from leadoff batter Juan Pierre.

But Ishii overcame five walks to pitch 6 2/3 innings. In his last three starts, he is 3-0 with a 1.66 ERA.

Tracy said Ishii, with pitching coach Jim Colborn’s help, has been mixing his pitches effectively and believing in his improving changeup.

“Kazuhisa Ishii is continuing to improve,” Tracy said. “I talked in his previous start about his changeup. His changeup is becoming a very effective pitch for him.

“It’s due to the fact that his command of his fastball is improving, and the mechanical adjustments that Colby has made to his delivery. You can see it in his face. You can see it from a confidence standpoint.

“He’s more and more comfortable with it. He’s much more certain of himself with each and every pitch that he throws.”

The Dodgers believe defeating the Marlins should only help Ishii’s confidence, and the team’s.

“No disrespect meant to any of the others that we’ve played, but this is as good a club as we’ve played,” Tracy said of Florida, which has dropped five of six but still leads the National League East by 2 1/2 games over second-place Atlanta.

“The landscape changes as you go along ... but we came in here and won two out of three games against a baseball team, in my opinion, that is going to remain in the upper part of the [division] for the majority of the season.”