In a division as tight as the NL West, anytime that you can put up a five game winning streak, you’re going to make a push. The Dodgers were at rock bottom before the winning streak and even though they dropped this afternoon’s game, they’re still only three games back (as of about 9 pm). And when you can take two of three against a solid team like the Astros, it’s something build on.
Tuesday’s game was interesing not just because of all of the runs scored, but because of the swings in the game. The Astros scored the first two, then the Dodgers scored the next five. The Astros then scored four in the fourth and took the lead back before the Dodgers tied the game up in the fifth. Then neither team scored for three innings. The Astros went down quietly in the top of the eighth, and then the Dodgers busted out and scored six runs to put the game away.
Jeff Kent drove in four runs and homered and Nomar Garciaparra drove in three. The first four Dodgers in the batting order all scored four runs. Jae Seo only lasted 3 1/3 innings and Takashi Saito picked up the win. Rookie Jonathon Broxton had another solid relief appearance. He pitched an 1 1/3 with one walk and one strikeout.
Yesterday, the Dodgers looked like they were going to run away with the game. They scored nine unanswered runs before the Astros scored three in the seventh and three more in the ninth to make it a 9-6 game. Bret Tomko improved to 4-1 with six innings of one hit ball. It was the bullpen that gave up all of the runs. Jeff Kent and Rafael Furcal both homered and drove in three runs.
Today, the Dodgers couldn’t get their bats going and even worse, they made three errors that led to two unearned runs. Derek Lowe took the loss and dropped to 1-2 and Jeff Kent homered in his third straight game. Broxton pitched a shutout ninth and now has a 1.50 ERA in six innings.
The Dodgers travel to San Francisco to play their arch rivals. The two teams are tied for fourth place (okay, last place), so whoever comes out ahead will be ahead of the other, while the loser ends up in the cellar.
