Dodgers take it from the top

Rafael Furcal sat on a sofa in the Dodgers clubhouse Saturday afternoon, rubbing a bat with a piece of sandpaper.

"It's for power," he said.

Four hours later Furcal needed only one swing to prove the sandpaper worked, belting a first-inning home run that started the slumping Dodgers on their way to an 11-1 rout of the San Diego Padres, ending a four-game losing streak.

Power has been just about the only thing Furcal has lacked so far in a season in which he has played exceptional defense while ranking among the National League leaders in eight categories, including average (.405), on-base percentage (.510) and runs (11).

His teammates, however, haven't been nearly as offensive, ranking near the bottom of the league in many of the same categories.

That all seemed to change with Furcal's first home of the season, though, since it jump-started a Dodgers offense that scored as many runs in one night as it did in last weekend's three-game series with the Padres in San Diego.

"Every time you lead off with a home run it gives you a little boost," catcher Russell Martin said. "Raffy's been swinging the bat extremely well. And he's really been the catalyst for our offense. We followed the leader. We just have to keep doing that."

By the time the night was over the Dodgers had followed Furcal to season highs for runs (11), homers (three) and hits (13), with James Loney and Andre Ethier collecting three hits each and Blake DeWitt adding two doubles.

Even the slumping Andruw Jones managed to reach base three times, scoring three runs, while pitcher Derek Lowe, who has never had more than four RBIs in a season, drove in three runs in six innings -- and knocked in another with a ground ball that was ruled an error.

By the time it was over, every starter had reached base at least once with eight of the nine contributing either a run or an RBI. Matt Kemp, who came into the game in the fifth, got one of each with a seventh-inning homer, his first this year.

"We have to take this game and realize that's what we can do," Martin said. "We're very capable of scoring runs. It's just a matter of getting going."

Manager Joe Torre agreed.

"You know we were too good to continue not scoring runs," he said. "When Furcal all of sudden tied the game up, it certainly put us in a better frame of mind."