PENNY STILL SHINING FOR THE DODGERS RUNS RECORD TO 3-0 WITH VICTORY DODGERS 5, ARIZONA 1.

Byline: TONY JACKSON 

Staff Writer

PHOENIX -- The Dodgers spent the offseason wondering which Brad Penny would show up to spring training. Penny spent the offseason wondering whether the Dodgers even wanted him to show up at all.

But after Penny's latest gem -- a 5-1 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks in front of 27,427 Monday night at Chase Field that vaulted the Dodgers back into first place in the National League West and erased any lingering doubt that Penny is now the undisputed ace of this pitching staff -- there was no question that this once-rocky marriage had found its footing.

Penny went seven spectacular innings, flirting with a no-hitter through the first three before the Diamondbacks finally got a hit off him with one out in the fourth. By the time manager Grady Little yanked him for a pinch hitter in the top of the eighth, Penny had allowed just a run on five hits.

All of which left him still with a zero in the loss column and still with another one on the left side of the decimal point in his ERA.

Barely two weeks into the new season, Penny is making club officials forget last season, when he threw three in-game temper tantrums. He is making himself forget last winter, when his name came up in so many trade rumors that he had to wonder if he still had a place on a club with an revamped starting rotation.

Mostly, though, Penny is making everyone forget that guy that put triple digits on the radar gun in a two-inning stint in last summer's All-Star Game, and spent too much time trying to match those readings in a lackluster second half.

"I think what we're seeing this year from Brad Penny is that he isn't out there grunting on every pitch, trying to throw 110 (mph)," Dodgers manager Grady Little said. "He is going out there with good, quality stuff and turning it into the kind of stuff he can use to get people out with. It involves a lot more changing speeds. He has good command of his, and he isn't out there trying to strike everybody out.

"What he is doing more is pitching, not just throwing, and he is getting good results."

With the Dodgers leading 3-0, Penny walked Chad Tracy with one out in the fourth, after which Carlos Quentin broke up the no-hit bit with a double up the left-field line. But weak-armed left fielder Luis Gonzalez, making his first appearance in a Dodgers uniform in the ballpark where he starred for the past eight seasons, played the carom perfectly and fired a strike to Rafael Furcal, who was way up the line to cut off the throw.

Furcal then made a perfect relay to catcher Russell Martin, who blocked the plate and tagged Tracy as he tried to slide to Martin's left.

That was Arizona's last, best threat against Penny (3-0), whose ERA was already so microscopic that it actually rose after this performance to 0.89.

Penny struck out just two batters.

"He is using his splitty more often this year," Martin said. "I think that pitch is the equalizer, and it has movement to it. He doesn't have to reach as far back and throw as hard as he used to. We mixed in some curveballs every once in a while, and he obviously maintained command of his fastball. But everything worked off that splitty."

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2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Brad Penny (3-0) allowed onerun in seven innings for the Dodgers on Monday.

(2) Arizona's Chad Tracy, left, is tagged out at the plate by Dodgers catcher Russell Martin as Brad Penny looks on.

Matt York/Associated Press