That's More Like It (Except for the Injury Part)

The Dodgers once again ran into some strong pitching Saturday at RFK, but they had enough of their own to stay in the game and eventually find a way to win.  Derek Lowe (3-3), whose run support this year has been weaker than watered down Starbucks, wasn't blessed with much today, either.  But his seven strong innings, allowing only one run on five hits and a walk, was enough to take the 3-1 win.  Lowe also struck out three and lowered his ERA to 2.90.  The Dodgers finally chased Nats starter Shawn Hill- who threw seven good innings of his own in his first big league appearance since 2004- then touched up Mike Stanton (1-5) and Gary Majewski in the eighth.  Shockingly enough, the big blow was dealt by Nomar Garciaparra.   His RBI single plated Rafael Furcal, and a Damian Jackson error gave the Dodgers an insurance tally in the ninth.  Solid relief work from Danys Baez and Takashi Saito (S,2) sealed the deal for L.A.

The bad news?  Jeff Kent had to leave the game in the second with a sprained left wrist, which he dinged while swinging... at a pitch, that is.  He'll most likely miss Sunday, and hopefully won't be out for long after that.  J.D. Drew also missed the game with a bad shoulder, which meant Grady Little played with a very short bench Saturday afternoon.  Hopefully this isn't a return to the bad old days (you know, like three weeks ago) when it seemed like Dodgers were landing on the DL faster than Paris Hilton on the pages of supermarket tabloids. 

More news as it becomes available.  Keep those blue fingers crossed for now.

BK