Astros no-hit for 6 2-3 innings before rallying past Dodgers

[May 12, 2008]  LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Hiroki Kuroda took a no-hitter into the seventh inning for the Los Angeles Dodgers before the Houston Astros broke out for seven hits and six runs in the eighth inning to pull out an 8-5 victory Sunday.

Lance Berkman, Carlos Lee and Hunter Pence had RBI singles against reliever Jonathan Broxton (1-1), and Brad Ausmus added a two-run single against the right-hander as the Astros won for the eighth time in nine games. Houston also completed its first three-game sweep at Dodger Stadium since September 25-27, 1992.

Michael Bourn capped the rally with a sacrifice fly, giving Houston a 7-3 lead.

Geoff Geary (1-1) pitched one inning for the win, and Jose Valverde got the final out for his eighth save after Doug Brocail gave up two runs in the ninth.

Houston starter Shawn Chacon ended up with his eighth straight no-decision to start the season -- tying a major league record. He gave up two runs and seven hits in six innings and struck out three. The nine-year veteran, in his first season with the Astros, joined left-hander Dick Stigman of the 1965 Minnesota Twins as the only pitchers to have no-decisions in their first eight starts of a season.

Kuroda allowed a run and just one hit over 6 2-3 innings, struck out five, walked three and hit a batter in his eighth big league start after 11 seasons with Hiroshima of the Japanese Pacific League. The right-hander remained winless in his last seven starts since his Dodgers debut on April 4, when he allowed a run and three hits over seven innings in a 7-1 win at San Diego.

Kuroda was bidding to become the second Japanese-born pitcher to throw a no-hitter in the majors. Hideo Nomo had one for Los Angeles on Sept. 17, 1996, beating the Colorado Rockies 9-0 at Coors Field. No Dodger has thrown a no-hitter since, but Nomo had another one April 4, 2001, at Baltimore in his Boston Red Sox debut.

Kuroda's no-hit bid ended when Pence slapped a clean single in the hole past third baseman Blake DeWitt with two outs in the seventh and the Dodgers leading 2-0 on James Loney's two-run homer in the first. Pence went 3-for-4 with two RBIs, one of them on a ninth-inning double.

Kuroda walked Ty Wigginton and had a 1-0 count on pinch-hitter Geoff Blum before manager Joe Torre replaced him with lefty Joe Beimel. The switch-hitting Blum, who came in 0-for-10 right-handed and 17-for-68 left-handed, drew a walk that loaded the bases after Pence and Wigginton executed a double-steal. 

Mark Loretta pinch hit for Chacon and Beimel walked him to force in a run, trimming the Dodgers' lead to 2-1. It was only the second RBI this season by Houston's pinch-hitters, who are 6-for-46.

Bourn followed with a towering drive to center field that fooled Matt Kemp and would have cleared the bases had Kemp not recovered just in time to make an outstretched grab at full speed with his back to home plate. Kemp started in center while the slumping Andruw Jones got the day off.

The Dodgers have lost four straight after winning 10 of 11.

Notes: Astros SS Miguel Tejada was hit by a pitch for the second consecutive day, after getting plunked only once in 154 plate appearances over his previous 36 games this season. ... The Dodgers next play Milwaukee, and will get a look at old pal Eric Gagne for the first time since he left the organization at the end of the 2006 season. Gagne set a major league record with 84 consecutive save conversions for them and won a Cy Young award in 2003. Gagne was demoted from his closer role Sunday after blowing five of his first 14 save opportunities.

[Associated Press]

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