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Dodgers play first of four games at Houston

Mon 30th, June 2008

(Sports Network) - The Los Angeles Dodgers start up a week-long road trip with the first of four straight meetings with the Houston Astros tonight at Minute Maid Park.

Los Angeles is five games below .500 on the season, but Joe Torre's club still trails first-place Arizona by just 2 1/2 games in the weak National League West and is coming off an encouraging showing against the area-rival Angels over the weekend. The Dodgers won two of their three clashes with American League West-leading Anaheim, but couldn't complete the sweep in Sunday's finale.

The Angels' John Lackey outdueled Dodgers starter Derek Lowe in Anaheim's 1-0 victory yesterday afternoon. The lone run came via a Mike Napoli single in the top of the second inning.

The Dodgers mustered just three hits against Lackey and Angels closer Francisco Rodriguez, one night after the team was no-hit in a strange 1-0 win over the Halos on Saturday. It was only the fifth time in modern major league history that a team won without recording a hit.

Los Angeles will attempt to break out of its offensive funk when the team takes it swings tonight against Houston ace Roy Oswalt. The standout right- hander is in the midst of an off-year but has pitched pretty well for the Astros as of late.

Oswalt allowed three runs over seven innings in a tough-luck loss to Texas on Wednesday, five days after he defeated Tampa Bay on the road with 7 2/3 frames of two-run ball.

Despite his solid recent performance, Oswalt is just 6-8 with a 4.77 ERA in 17 starts this year. The three-time All-Star has served up a whopping 13 home runs in 49 2/3 innings of work at home in 2008.

In seven career games (6 starts) against Los Angeles, Oswalt is 4-3 with a 3.96 ERA. He did not face the Dodgers when these teams played a three-game series in LA earlier this season.

Taking the mound for the Dodgers tonight will be the surprising Eric Stults, who's delivered back-to-back excellent starts since being recalled from Triple A a few weeks ago due to injuries in the Los Angeles rotation.

Stults, a 28-year-old lefty who entered this season with just two big-league wins to his credit, gave up three runs -- one earned -- over six innings to defeat Cincinnati on June 19. He followed up with a superb effort in Wednesday's 5-0 win over the Chicago White Sox, yielding just four hits and a walk in registering his first career shutout.

This will be Stults' first career appearance against Houston.

The Astros are 4-2 thus far on a nine-game homestand and handed the defending world champion Boston Red Sox back-to-back losses in the final two tilts of a weekend series. In Sunday's finale, ex-Red Sox Mark Loretta came through with a tie-breaking pinch-hit single to lift Houston to a 3-2 win.

Loretta's two-out hit made a winner out of Doug Brocail (4-3), who struck out three during a 1 2/3-inning stint of scoreless relief. Brian Moehler held the Red Sox to one run and fanned five over the first 5 2/3 frames.

Geoff Blum had a solo homer in the win, while Lance Berkman contributed an RBI single for Houston.

The Astros swept a three-game set from the Dodgers in Los Angeles from May 9-11 and have won seven of the last nine meetings between the teams. Los Angeles is just 2-7 at Minute Maid Park since 2005.

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