Pirates-Dodgers Preview

Randy Wolf was looking great in the Los Angeles Dodgers' rotation before hyperextending his elbow earlier this month, an injury that forced him to miss his last scheduled start.

There's little reason to believe he can't pick up where he left off.

Wolf will go for his sixth straight victory Tuesday night as he takes the mound against the punchless Pittsburgh Pirates looking to aid the Dodgers' quest for another NL West crown.

Chad Billingsley has had an ordinary second half and Los Angeles (86-59) has had trouble scoring runs for Clayton Kershaw, but the Dodgers have been in excellent hands when Wolf (10-6, 3.22 ERA) had taken the mound over the past month.

The left-hander is 5-0 with a 2.09 ERA in his last five starts while posting a 5-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio, but he suffered a hyperextended elbow during batting practice Sept. 5. He allowed two runs and four hits over seven innings in a 7-4 victory over San Diego that night, but was scratched from his last outing due to the injury.

"Missing one start feels like an eternity," Wolf told the Dodgers' official Web site. ... But to have one little hiccup is not all that bad."

Wolf hasn't faced the Pirates (55-87) this season -- he's 7-1 with a 3.39 ERA in 10 career starts against Pittsburgh -- and neither had Los Angeles until Monday night.

The Pirates failed to score more than two runs for the fourth straight game, while three hits from Orlando Hudson and a two-run homer from Andre Ethier -- his team-leading 29th -- lifted the Dodgers to a 6-2 win.

With Colorado's 9-1 loss in San Francisco -- its third straight -- Los Angeles' NL West lead increased to four games.

"We knew coming in that this was a great opportunity for us to get some distance from Colorado and San Francisco, and let them beat up on each other a little bit," Ethier said.

Ethier's blast Monday came against Pittsburgh's Daniel McCutchen, his 24th this season off a right-hander. The left-handed Ethier is batting .193 against southpaws.

Despite the presence of left-hander Zach Duke (10-14, 4.02) on Tuesday, Ethier will likely still be in manager Joe Torre's lineup. He's 5 for 11 with five RBIs in his career against Duke.

Duke is 0-3 with a 12.46 ERA in his last three starts. His latest came Sept. 8 at PNC Park, where he gave up eight runs and 12 hits over four innings of a 9-4 loss to the Chicago Cubs. He also tied a major league record by allowing hits to the first eight batters he faced in Chicago's seven-run first inning.

"I'll tell you what, I made some pretty good pitches that ended up being hits," Duke told the Pirates' official Web site. "I really don't know how to explain it. There was one ball hit hard."

Duke is 1/3 with a 7.53 ERA in six career starts against the Dodgers, and Ethier isn't the only one to have hit him hard. Russell Martin is 6 for 12 with a homer off Duke, while Matt Kemp is 5 for 9.

Pittsburgh's Ronny Cedeno, hitting .429 with a homer and three RBIs in his last six games overall, is 3 for 3 with a walk in his career against Wolf.

The Pirates have lost 19 of 21 on the road.