PHILADELPHIA — A second consecutive series victory strongly indicates the Los Angeles Dodgers might be headed in the right direction again.

Ramon Martinez took advantage of a rare start and had two hits, drove in two runs and scored another in the Dodgers' 5-2 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies on Thursday.

The Dodgers, who were coming off a series victory against Colorado, won two of three games here to keep pressure on the teams they are chasing in the wild card and NL West races.

"Things were falling into place pretty good there in (the) last two ballgames," manager Grady Little said. "We got some clutch hitting at the right time, we showed a little patience at the plate, and it paid off."

Patience was the key. The Dodgers had a difficult time doing much offensively against Phillies starter Fabio Castro, although he walked six. Castro, making his first major league start, was touched for a run in the fifth inning and left the game losing, but his reprieve came when the Phillies tied the score against Dodgers starter Chad Billingsley in the sixth.

The Dodgers took advantage of the Phillies' shaky bullpen to regain the lead and pull away. Martinez led off the seventh inning with a single and scored on a two-out single by Juan Pierre.

"Offensively we've been moving the ball," said Pierre, who extended his hitting streak to 11 games.

"We've been getting big hits all throughout the lineup, not just from James Loney or Jeff Kent or Russ (Martin). We've had Ramon coming through with big hits."

Pierre was thrown out attempting to steal second base, ending his career-high streak of 18 consecutive steals. He jammed the pinkie finger on his left hand while sliding into second base but remained in the game.

The Dodgers added three runs in the eighth inning, with Martinez driving in two, to take a 5-1 lead and help Billingsley (8-40 win for the first time since his complete-game victory in Houston exactly one month earlier.

Billingsley held the Phillies to one run and four hits in seven innings.

"The command was there but the velocity wasn't really too much there," Billingsley said. "I was just spotting up real well and getting some off-speed (pitches) across and getting ahead of hitters.

"For the most part I was happy with the way I threw. I kept the ball down and kept the ball in the park. In Philly, if you leave the ball up, it has a good chance of getting out. It allowed me to get quick innings."

Jonathan Broxton pitched the eighth inning and gave up a home run to Tadahito Iguchi. The homer was the first allowed by Broxton since July 24, 2006, a stretch that covered 9713 innings over 94 games.

The streak set a Los Angeles Dodgers record.

"I was aware of it (the record) but I couldn't sit out there and think, I can't give up this, I can't give up that,' " Broxton said. "I'm out there in tight ball games where if you start thinking about it you're going to walk a guy and if you do give it up, it's a tie ball game or something."

Notes: Before Iguchi, the last player to hit a home run off of Broxton was Mike Cameron of San Diego on at Dodger Stadium. ... Matt Kemp stole his sixth base of the season in the Dodgers' three-run eighth.