Bonds Hits 757; Dodgers Blanked Again

Thursday, August 9th 2007, 7:35 am

By: News On 6

An inept Dodgers offense is bringing back memories of 40 years ago. On a night when Barry Bonds followed his historic 756th home run with a two-run shot in his next at-bat, the Dodgers got nothing from their hitters. Again.

At Cincinnati, Ken Griffey Jr. singled home a run and made a pair of key defensive plays Wednesday night, sending the Cincinnati Reds to a 1-0 victory that left Los Angeles without a run for the third game in a row.

The Dodgers' offensive slump is reaching near-epic proportions. They hadn't been shut out three games in a row since 1966. That year, they got blanked three in a row from April 23-25, then again in the last three games of the World Series while they were getting swept by Baltimore.

Manager Grady Little noted that he watched Reds starter Aaron Harang and 56-year-old pitching coach Dick Pole leave the bullpen after pregame warmups.

``I saw two big men walk through that gate, and either one of them could have shut us out tonight,'' Little said. ``We're in it bad right now.''

In other NL games, it was: Colorado 19, Milwaukee 4; Philadelphia 6, Florida 4; New York 4, Atlanta 3; Houston 8, Chicago 2; St. Louis 2, San Diego 1; and Arizona 10, Pittsburgh 6.

At San Francisco, Bonds hit a towering home run into McCovey Cove in the first inning, setting off a furious battle among kayakers for the valuable ball. Regular cove kayaker Martin Wong came up with it, and was whisked away to have the souvenir authenticated.

The Giants beat the Washington Nationals 5-0 behind six innings of three-hit ball from Matt Cain, who also hit his first major league home run.

The Dodgers didn't hit the ball hard very often off Harang (11-3) and when they did, some glove was there to extend the agony. Harang gave up four hits over eight muggy innings, and the Reds made four exemplary plays to keep Los Angeles stuck on zero again.

Los Angeles hasn't scored in its last 28 innings.

``One big hit. That's all we need,'' said Matt Kemp, who thought he had broken the bad spell in the eighth inning, only to get robbed by second baseman Brandon Phillips. ``When you're going bad, you do something good and the other team does something to bring you back down.''

Los Angeles has lost a season-high six in a row and been shut out in four of the last five games. The Dodgers have dropped 15 of 20 overall, plummeting from first place to fourth in the NL West for the first time since April 5.

``It's tough,'' said Chad Billingsley (7-3), who lost despite giving up only one run. ``Bad luck's coming toward us right now.''

Griffey's run-scoring single off Billingsley in the third put the Reds in line for the win. The right fielder also made a pair of impressive catches to steal hits.

So did Phillips. He saved the shutout in the eighth by making a diving catch of Kemp's sinking liner, then flipping to second to retire James Loney, who had doubled.

Phillips made a diving stop on Kent's up-the-middle grounder and threw him out to end the game with another sensational play that brought more Dodger blues.

``Pitching and defense _ the old equation for success in baseball,'' interim manager Pete Mackanin said. ``Griffey made a couple of nice catches, and you can't say enough about Phillips' play at the end.''

Mets 4, Braves 3

At New York, Moises Alou hit a tiebreaking homer in the eighth and Billy Wagner escaped a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the ninth.

Alou homered on an 0-2 pitch from Rafael Soriano (2-3). Shawn Green went 4-for-4 for the Mets, who beat Atlanta for the fourth time in 11 meetings this season.

Rockies 19, Brewers 4

At Denver, Garrett Atkins matched his career high with six RBIs and had four of Colorado's 23 hits to help the Rockies complete a three-game sweep.

Jeff Francis (13-5) improved to 8-0 in his last 11 starts. He allowed three runs and six hits in five innings. Yovani Gallardo (4-2) was rocked for a season-high 11 runs and 12 hits in 2 2-3 innings.

Phillies 6, Marlins 4

At Philadelphia, Aaron Rowand homered to keep Florida's Dontrelle Willis winless in his last 13 starts.

Not even a two-run homer by Willis (7-12) could save the former 20-game winner from extending the longest losing streak of his career. He's 0-9 with four no-decisions while the Marlins have gone 3-10 in his outings since his last victory on May 29.

Kyle Lohse (7-12) went 6 1-3 innings and left with a 6-3 lead. He gave up six hits, walked three and struck out three to help Philadelphia win its third straight game.

Astros 8, Cubs 2

At Houston, Roy Oswalt (12-6) pitched six shutout innings and Craig Biggio and Lance Berkman hit solo home runs off Carlos Zambrano (14-8) as the Astros completed a three-game sweep.

Luke Scott added a two-run triple and Mike Lamb had a two-run double as Houston snapped a four-game losing streak to Zambrano, who hadn't given up more than one earned run in a start against Houston in almost two years.

Cardinals 2, Padres 1

At St. Louis, Kip Wells (5-13) limited San Diego to an unearned run in seven innings, and the Cardinals got first-inning RBIs from Juan Encarnacion and Albert Pujols.

Greg Maddux (7-9) gave up four hits before recording an out. He didn't give up another hit through six innings, allowing two runs.

Diamondbacks 10, Pirates 6

At Phoenix, Chris Snyder drove in four runs, two on a home run, and Arizona overcame Byung-Hyun Kim's miserable return.

Kim, the Diamondbacks' closer from 1999 through 2001, was acquired off waivers from Florida last week. He was booed when introduced and lasted just 2 1-3 innings. He gave up five runs, four earned, and seven hits.

Pirates starter Paul Maholm (7-14) allowed four runs in the first inning, then his throwing error cleared the way for two unearned runs in the sixth.