After having its nine-game win streak snapped in a 2-1 loss at San Diego on Wednesday, Chicago (39-22) held on for a 5-4 victory at Los Angeles on Thursday night to improve to 4-0 versus the Dodgers this year. Each of the four meetings have been decided by one or two runs.

Kosuke Fukudome went 2-for-4 with a homer and singled home the winning run in the ninth inning off fellow Japanese import and Dodgers closer Takashi Saito. The Cubs, owners of the best record in the majors, improved to 17-3 against teams from the NL West despite blowing a 4-0 lead.

"That's a good way to start a four-game series," Chicago manager Lou Piniella said. "Fukudome came up with some clutch hitting in the ninth inning."

Ryan Theriot had three hits, while Jim Edmonds and Mark DeRosa each had two for Chicago, which has a 3 1/2-game lead over second-place St. Louis in the NL Central. Kerry Wood struck out Matt Kemp with the bases loaded in the bottom of ninth to convert his fifth straight save opportunity and 17th this season.

Fukudome, who's batting .367 (11-for-30) with two homers and six RBIs in his last nine games, faces another Japanese rookie on Friday with Los Angeles scheduled to start Hiroki Kuroda. Fukudome was 1-for-2 against Kuroda in Chicago's 3-1 win over the Dodgers on May 27.

Kuroda (2-5, 3.93 ERA) took the loss in that game despite allowing one run in 6 1-3 innings, and now he looks to avoid a third consecutive defeat. The right-hander wasn't nearly as effective in his last start, giving up six runs and seven hits in a season-low 2 2-3 innings of a 6-1 loss to the New York Mets on Sunday.

"This is my first year and I've got a lot to learn," Kuroda said. "I could do more than I'm doing."

Fellow rookie Sean Gallagher (3-1, 4.55), who yielded a run in seven innings to outduel Kuroda and earn the win last week in his only start versus the Dodgers, looks for his third consecutive victory when he takes the ball Friday.

Gallagher allowed three runs and six hits in 6 2-3 innings of a 5-3 win over Colorado on Sunday to further take hold of the No. 5 spot in Chicago's starting rotation.

"You can just go out there, pitch your game, and this team's going to support me and back me the whole game," Gallagher told the Cubs' official Web site.

On Friday, the 22-year-old right-hander will try to contain Jeff Kent, who homered twice Thursday for Los Angeles, which has lost three in a row and 11 of 14.

Kent, the major league leader for career homers by a second baseman with 347, is batting .343 (12-for-35) with four home runs in his last nine games. He is 5-for-8 in two games versus the Cubs in 2008.

Kemp, who went 0-for-5 Thursday and has one hit in his last three games, could continue to be in the lineup after appealing the four-game suspension he received Thursday for insighting a bench-clearing brawl against Colorado on Tuesday.