DENVER -- It's not easy to get into the heads of the Dodgers, who wrapped up a successful road trip with a hard-fought 3-2 win against the Rockies at Coors Field on Wednesday.

Brad Penny, who again battled back spasms to pitch the Dodgers into position to win, left without talking about it. Nomar Garciaparra, the RBI machine whose bases-loaded, two-run single won it, talked without saying much.

There was a lot more to this win than Penny's six innings or Garciaparra's two RBIs. Garciaparra, for example, also saved a run in the fourth inning, when he made a diving catch near the first-base bag of Jamey Carroll's line drive with a runner on third base and two out.

Danys Baez, on probation as closer after suffering blown saves in his last four opportunities, came through over the final 1 2/3 innings, and he pretty much had to, because Takashi Saito was too sick to pitch.

And in the seventh inning, down 1-0, just about everything that could have gone right, did for the Dodgers. It started with a one-out Ramon Martinez bouncer past third baseman Garrett Atkins for only the fourth Dodgers hit of the game. Martinez started in place of Jeff Kent, out with a stiff back.

To stay out of the double play, manager Grady Little gave rookie Russell Martin the hit-and-run sign, and Martin barely made contact on a tough pitch, cueing a slow roller right where second baseman Jason Smith would have been, if he hadn't been breaking toward second base with the runner. By the time Smith retreated to glove and throw the ball, Martin was safe at first with a headfirst slide.

"I wanted to have a runner on base for Olmedo [Saenz]," Little said, explaining the hit-and-run strategy that had Saenz follow Martin as a pinch-hitter for Penny. Saenz bounced a single to score the first Los Angeles run.

After Rafael Furcal struck out, Jose Cruz Jr. fell behind Jason Jennings, 0-2, then patiently worked a walk to load the bases for Garciaparra, who has been on fire since he returned from the disabled list a month ago.

"One great at-bat," Little said of Cruz, who leads the club in walks.

Like Cruz, Garciaparra fell behind in the count, 0-2, then bounced his single through the left side of the infield. With a five-man bench and Kent and Kenny Lofton active but injured, Little had to leave Saenz in to run from second base, representing what ultimately became the winning run, but left fielder Matt Holliday was playing Garciaparra deep and wasn't able to get Saenz at the plate.

"He's shown considerably more discipline than when he was younger, and he's laying off some pitches he didn't used to," Little said of Garciaparra, who has 25 RBIs in 23 games.

A one-run lead with three innings left for this Dodgers bullpen was no sure thing, but Jonathan Broxton pitched a clean seventh inning. Joe Beimel got the first out in the eighth, but the next three batters reached on a double, single and throwing error.

Baez snuffed out the rally by getting Miguel Ojeda on a crucial double-play grounder.

"That kind of play gave me a lot of confidence," said Baez, who has slipped from Eric Gagne's understudy closer role. "I was back in charge. A perfect pitch, a perfect ground-ball double play."

But Baez made the ninth exciting when, with two out, Cory Sullivan singled and Baez overthrew a first-pitch curveball that grazed Atkins in the head, bringing up Todd Helton, who homered off Baez in their only previous meeting.

Out to the mound went Little, bringing not a hook, but words of encouragement.

"I told him to take a deep breath, don't overthrow and let the guy get himself out," he said.

Helton popped a harmless fly to right fielder J.D. Drew to end it.

"That kind of game tells you you're making the right adjustments to get better," Baez said.

The game also said more about Penny than he would say for himself. After leaving Friday night's game in San Francisco with back spasms, he was pitching in pain from a rugged bullpen warmup until he left after 109 pitches, six innings, seven strikeouts and no walks. He also hit two batters.

"You could tell his back was aching, but it didn't change the way we went about pitching," said Martin, his catcher. "It was kind of like old-school back in the day, the guy playing through anything. You get tough and leave it all out there. Not all guys can do that."

Penny gets an extra day off to rest before his next start.

"You couldn't ask for anything more," Little said of Penny. "He's not 100 percent, but you certainly can't tell once he gets on the mound. When he stops moving is when it bothers him."

With the victory, Penny is 4-1 with a 2.53 ERA, ranking fifth in the league. He improved to 6-2 with a 2.69 ERA lifetime against Colorado.