The offense couldn’t get going last night, scoring only one run in the ninth inning to take the 7-1 loss in the series opener to the Astros.
The Dodger offense could only produce seven hits: two from each James Loney and Blake DeWitt, and one each from Russell Martin, Andruw Jones, and Derek Lowe. The lone run came in the ninth when Jones, who had doubled, scored on a RBI-groundout from Chin-lung Hu. The Dodgers went 0 for 9 with RISP in the game, and have scored just two runs in their past 21 innings. Rafael Furcal was out of the lineup again, and is still listed as day-to-day but Torre has announced that he will start in today’s game.
The Rays starter, Brian Moehler, earned his first win from a start in nearly two years. Lowe gave up six runs in 5 1/3 inning to take his third loss of the season. Lowe gave up a pair of runs in the second, third and fifth innings and left in the fifth for Cory Wade, who pitched 1 2/3 shutout innings. Yhency Brazoban, who was just recalled from Las Vegas for his first Dodger appearance this season, worked one inning and Scott Proctor the ninth, with Proctor giving up one more run on two hits.
The Dodgers and Astros, now both with 19 wins, will go again tonight at 7:10pm. Chad Billingsley will make the start and go for his third straight win of the season, coming off a 5-1 victory over the Mets, where he gave up just one run through six innings. Ironically, the last Dodger pitcher to throw a complete game was Billingsley last year against the Astros, so we hope that history will be repeated. The Astros will start Chris Sampson, who is 1-3 this season and 0-1 lifetime against the Dodgers.
