Houston-Andy Pettite of the Houston Astros held the Los Angeles Dodgers hitless for 6 1/3 innings, but in the seventh J.D. Drew of the Los Angeles Dodgers homered to tie the score at 1.
In the eighth, Lance Berkman of the Houston Astros hit a solo shot for a 2-1 adavantage for the Houston Astros, and things seemed bleak for the Los Angeles Dodgers as all-star closer Brad Lidge of the Houston Astros came to the mound to pitch the ninth.
After Kenny Lofton of the Los Angeles Dodgers tripled with one out, the All-Star closer walked Drew and Jeff Kent of the Los Angeles Dodgers and faced Nomar Gariciaparra of the Los Angeles Dodgers with the bases loaded, Garciaparra then drove a 2-2 pitch to left-center for his sixth career grand slam home run to give the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-2 lead, Dioner Navarro of the Los Angeles Dodgers added an RBI single and the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the Houston Astros 6-2 on Monday night at Minute Maid Park.
Garciaparra was thinking small as he stepped into the box. He just wanted to avoid a double play and give Bill Mueller of the Los Angeles Dodgers a chance to hit after him. "Just get a ball I can drive and get it up in the air,"Nomar Garciaparra of the Los Angeles Dodgers said. "If you get the ball in the air, you get a guy in.
If not, worse-case scenario, you've got a guy in Bill Mueller who will give you a good at-bat."
Garciaparra was playing in only his second game since returning from a brief minor-league rehab stint. He missed the first 17 games of the season with a strained muscle in his rib cage.
Brad Lidge of the Houston Astros had been 7-for-7 on save opportunities this year. It was his first blown save since he gave up Albert Pujols mammoth home run in Game 5 of the NL Championship Series last October against the St. Louis Cardinals.
Derek Lowe of the Los Angeles Dodgers pitched superbly and gave the Dodgers a chance at the victory by limiting the Houston Astros to one run on four hits over seven strong innings, and was relieved by Takashi Saito of the Los Angeles Dodgers who gave up Berkman's eighth inning blast but was the winner and improved to 2-0 on the year, Danys Baez of the Los Angeles Dodgers entered the game with two on and nobody out in the bottom of the ninth and got Brad Ausmus of the Houston Astros who had already had three hits in the game to fly out and forced Adam Everett of the Houston Astros to ground into a game-ending double play and record his sixth save.
The Los Angeles Dodgers improved their record to 10-10 on the year and moved within 1 1/2 games of the national league west leaders the San Francisco Giants, the Los Angeles Dodgers snapped the Houston Astros three-game winning streak, the Astros had won seven of eight overall.Brad Penny of the Los Angeles Dodgers will pitch against Fernando Nieve of the Houston Astros in the second game of the three-game series tonight at Minute Maid Park in Houston.
