An evening of extremes
PITTSBURGH — In only a few minutes, Derek Lowe went from flirting with a no-hitter to hanging on merely to win a game that the Los Angeles Dodgers appeared to have long since wrapped up.
Lowe was so dominating for six innings that his manager began thinking he might throw a second career no-hitter, only to nearly squander a five-run lead before the Dodgers held on to beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 6-5 on Monday night.
Jeff Kent, in a 1-for-26 slump, doubled in a run, Rafael Furcal hit a two-run double and Russell Martin hit his fourth homer in his last five starts as the Dodgers took three of four in Pittsburgh. They have won nine of 12 going into a three-game series against NL West rival San Diego tonight.
"It was a shock all of a sudden to go from one extreme to the next so quick, but we won," Lowe said. "That's what counts."
Lowe (6-5) didn't allow a hit until Freddy Sanchez singled up the middle with no out in the seventh. Long before then, Dodgers manager Grady Little was comparing his effort to the no-hitter Lowe threw for the Little-managed Boston Red Sox against Tampa Bay in 2002.
"I thought that was the best stuff I'd seen him have since he threw one for me in Boston," Little said. "It lasted a pretty long while there. He had a pretty good run. He's got the stuff (for a no-hitter). When you saw some of the plays made behind him, you kind of started getting that feeling."
Lowe wasn't thinking nearly that far ahead, saying afterward, "You don't worry about no-hitters until the ninth inning. It was a long way away."
Especially when Lowe's hard sinker deserted him in the seventh. He walked Chris Duffy ahead of Sanchez's single, a run-scoring force play grounder and Xavier Nady's two-run homer. Until then, Lowe had not allowed a fly ball since Jose Bautista flied out to right to start the game.
"He started getting a little tired, wasn't throwing as many strikes and he started getting the ball up a little bit," Bautista said. "He made some mistakes and we made him pay."
Just not enough to win the game, something the Pirates appeared to have little chance of doing when they fell behind 5-0 in the seventh on Brady Clark's RBI infield single and Furcal's two-run double. Still, the Pirates almost came back to win a game that appeared lost, a day after they lost a game that seemed won by blowing a late four-run lead in a 5-4 loss.
The Dodgers got a run back when Martin hit his seventh homer of the season, a solo drive in the eighth off Josh Sharpless that made it 6-3. Bautista came back with his fourth of the season, a drive to left on a 3-1 pitch with two outs in the eighth that forced Lowe from the game and helped create a tentative debut for temporary Dodgers closer Jonathan Broxton.
Broxton, pitching the ninth with closer Takashi Saito (hamstring) out for at least a few days, gave up a single to Sanchez to start the inning. Sanchez reached second on Bay's groundout, then scored on Adam LaRoche's double to make it 6-5.
After walking Nady, putting the winning run on base, Broxton got Ryan Doumit to ground into a force play and Jack Wilson to ground out, stranding runners on the corners.
"To battle like we did — we could have put our tail between our legs and just gotten out of here — is a credit to our guys," Duffy said. "We put together some good at-bats and we got to him (Lowe). We just fell a little short."
