Dodgers Barely Hold On To Beat Pirates

Tuesday, June 5th 2007, 7:56 am

By: News On 6

PITTSBURGH (AP) _ Dodgers manager Grady Little knows what a Derek Lowe no-hitter looks like. So when Lowe dominated the Pittsburgh Pirates for six exceptional innings, Little began thinking he might be watching baseball history repeat itself.

Lowe, so in command that he allowed only one ball out of the infield until the seventh inning, lost his bid for his second career no-hitter Monday night when Freddy Sanchez singled up the middle with no one out.

Then came the real surprise: the Dodgers almost lost the game, too, before holding on for a 6-5 victory that wasn't secured until temporary closer Jonathan Broxton got Jack Wilson to ground out with runners on first and third.

``I thought that was the best stuff I'd seen him have since he threw one (a no-hitter) for me in Boston (in 2002),'' Little said of Lowe. ``It lasted a pretty long while there. He had a pretty good run. He's got the stuff. When you saw some of the plays made behind him, you kind of started getting that feeling.''

In the ninth inning, with Lowe out of the game, a five-run lead nearly gone thanks to homers by Xavier Nady and Jose Bautista and closer Takashi Saito (hamstring) not available, the Dodgers had a much different feeling.

By then, they wanted merely to keep from losing a game that appeared long since won and avoid an unhappy all-night plane ride to San Diego.

Broxton managed to do that, but not before giving up a run on Adam LaRoche's double and nearly giving up the game, too.

``It's intense,'' Broxton said of pitching the ninth, rather than an earlier inning. ``But you've still got to go out and get your outs.''

Especially when they didn't come as quickly and as easily as they did early on for Lowe, who needed barely an hour to get through the first six innings. Until then, shortstop Rafael Furcal's stop of a Bautista grounder up the middle to end the sixth was the only difficult play needed to keep the no-hitter going. Furcal also contributed a two-run double.

In other NL games, it was: Florida 6, Atlanta 4; San Francisco 8, Philadelphia 1; and Chicago 7, Milwaukee 2.

The Pirates sensed it was a different Lowe on the mound in the seventh _ his sinker wasn't dropping as sharply, and there were far more pitches above the knees to hit _ and they scored three times to cut it to 5-3. The Dodgers' Russell Martin homered in the eighth, but Bautista answered in the bottom of the inning to chase Lowe and make it 6-4.

Not long after Lowe (6-5) looked to be pitching once of the best games of his career, he was lifted following one of his least-successful starts of the season, at least according to his box-score line.

``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.''

Or exactly what Broxton said. He had a rougher time that planned while filling in for Saito, who is 16-for-16 in save opportunities this season, but still got his fourth career save.

``You've still got to go out and throw strikes and get guys out,'' he said. ``I had to settle down and start getting ahead of guys.''

By winning, the Dodgers assured themselves of being in the NL West lead, if only by a half-game, when they start that three-game series against the rested Padres, who had Monday off.

``Nobody's going to use the long flight as an excuse, but it's definitely not an advantage going into tomorrow's (Tuesday's) game when them already being at home with an off day,'' Lowe said.

Think how the Dodgers would have felt if they had lost.

``The guy (Broxton) has got the stuff,'' Little said. ``He got through it.''

Marlins 6, Braves 4

At Atlanta, the Florida Marlins scored four runs off Tim Hudson during a strange fifth inning and went on to beat the Braves.

Wes Obermueller (2-3) hung around long enough for the win, giving up eight hits and three runs in five innings.

Florida sent eight hitters to the plate against Hudson (6-4) in the fifth, benefiting from a couple of walks, an error by left fielder Willie Harris and a strikeout that didn't result in an out.

Giants 8, Phillies 1

Barry Zito allowed only an unearned run over six innings and Ryan Klesko hit a three-run homer to lead visiting San Francisco.

Zito (6-5) pitched out of trouble throughout the afternoon to win his third straight start.

Barry Bonds was 0-for-4 with two strikeouts and a walk to remain at 746 career homers, 10 shy of breaking Hank Aaron's record. After homering 11 times in his first 76 at-bats, the Giants slugger has only one home run in 61 at-bats since connecting May 8.

Jon Lieber (2-4) allowed five runs and 10 hits in five-plus innings. He's allowed 14 runs and 29 hits in three starts after posting a 2.50 ERA in his first six.

Cubs 7, Brewers 2

At Milwaukee, Alfonso Soriano had five hits, including a three-run homer, to help the Cubs beat the Brewers.

The win was the second in a row for the Cubs since manager Lou Piniella was ejected on Saturday in Chicago, after a dirt-kicking tantrum against an umpire following a close play at third base. Piniella was suspended four games by Major League Baseball for the incident.

Soriano, who also had four singles, has homered in each of his last three games. The last time he had five hits in a game was as a member of the New York Yankees on Sept. 17, 2002, a 9-7 loss to Tampa Bay.

Carlos Marmol (1-0) got the win, retiring two batters in the sixth inning in relief of starter Jason Marquis.

Dave Bush (3-6) gave up four runs on seven hits in six-plus innings.