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Astros tee off on Billingsley
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More from SportsLOS ANGELES — Chris Sampson pitched three-hit ball over seven innings, Darin Erstad and Miguel Tejada each drove in two runs and the Houston Astros beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-0 on Saturday night.
Sampson () struck out three and walked one in his Dodger Stadium debut, matching his longest outing of the season. The right-hander, who began his professional career as a shortstop, had given up 18 earned runs in 1513 innings over his previous four starts.
Chad Billingsley (2-5) allowed five runs — four earned — and six hits in five innings.
The Dodgers have fallen behind 12-0, 7-0 and 5-0 in their last three games, avoiding a shutout with a ninth-inning run in each of the first two. During that stretch, their starting pitchers have allowed 14 runs over the first three innings.
Los Angeles' Rafael Furcal, third in the majors with a .366 average, missed his fourth straight game with a sore lower back.
The Dodgers' best scoring chance came in the fifth with runners at second and third and no outs. But Chin-lung Hu grounded out to third and pinch hitter Mark Sweeney lined out to first baseman Lance Berkman, who then made a diving stop of Juan Pierre's grounder in the hole and tossed to Sampson for the third out.
Billingsley threw two wild pitches and hit a batter during the Astros' three-run first. The second wild pitch put two in scoring position and led to an intentional walk to Berkman. Carlos Lee followed with a sacrifice fly, and Erstad hit a two-run double to right-center with two outs.
The Astros increased the margin to 5-0 in the second on Tejada's two-run single with the bases loaded, and probably would have tacked on more that inning had they not run themselves into a pair of outs.
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