The Los Angeles Dodgers rode the red-hot form of pitcher Brad Penny to cruise to a 10-1 interleague rout of the Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday.

The win, the ninth in 10 decisions by Penny, came after the Dodgers found out key right-hander Jason Schmidt was to have exploratory shoulder surgery yesterday and is out indefinitely.

Penny gave up a run on six hits in seven innings, lowering his ERA to 2.12 as he became the National League's second nine-game winner.

"I got away with a lot of mistakes," he told reporters.

Dodgers catcher Russell Martin, a Canadian playing his first game in his native country, hit a home run, Luis Gonzalez went 3-for-4 and drove in four runs and Juan Pierre had two hits, three stolen bases and scored three runs to lift Los Angeles, which is showing signs of offensive life after changing batting coaches.

Toronto's Dustin McGowan, who handled the Dodgers in Los Angeles last month, was shelled on Tuesday and fell to 3-3.

The Blue Jays also got more bad injury news as right-hander A.J. Burnett was placed on the disabled list for the ninth time in his career, this time with a sore right shoulder.

In Cleveland, Ryan Howard homered and drove in four runs and Kyle Hendrick earned his first major league victory as Philadelphia beat Cleveland 9-6 on Tuesday.

Howard had an RBI single in a three-run first, homered into the second deck in right in the third off Jason Stanford (1-1) and added a two-run double in the ninth. Of Howard's last 27 hits, 13 have been home runs.

Kendrick, a 23-year-old right-hander making his second major league start, allowed three runs and five hits in six innings.

Pat Burrell hit a two-run double in the first for the Phillies, and Chase Utley added a two-run single in the seventh.

At Washington, Sean Casey hit his first home run of the season, one of Detroit's 17 hits, as the Tigers trounced Washington 15-1.

Marcus Thames also homered for the Tigers, who tied a season-high for runs a night after Todd Jones gave up three in the ninth and nearly blew a four-run lead. The Tigers have won four of their last five games and have scored at least 10 runs six times in 17 games in June.

The visiting Minnesota Twins crushed the New York Mets 9-0 as Johan Santana (7-6) pitched his first shutout in almost two years and the Mets, losing for the 12th time in the last 15 games, made four errors.

The Boston Red Sox tied their series with the Braves in Atlanta with a 4-0 victory as Josh Beckett became the second 10-game winner in the Major Leagues. David Ortiz homered for Boston.

The Milwaukee Brewers scored a 6-2 victory over the floundering San Francisco Giants in Milwaukee in the only intraleague game on Tuesday's slate. Ben Sheets pitched his 13th career complete game and Prince Fielder drove in three runs as the last-place Giants lost their sixth straight.

A day after firing manager Sam Perlozzo, the Baltimore Orioles lost their ninth straight, falling 12-6 to the San Diego Padres in San Diego. Jake Peavy moved to 9-1 for the Padres.

The Colorado Rockies beat the New York Yankees 3-1 as Josh Fogg picked up his first home victory this season.

(China Daily via Agencies June 21, 2007)