Photo by Ric Francis
AP

The Dodgers' Russell Martin, right, gets himself in a pickle and is tagged out by Astros pitcher Shawn Chacon.

LOS ANGELES — The Houston Astros had as much difficulty getting a hit against Hiroki Kuroda as the Los Angeles Dodgers' usually reliable bullpen did in getting outs.

Kuroda took a no-hitter into the seventh inning before the Astros broke through for seven hits and six runs in the eighth inning and pulled out an 8-5 victory Sunday.

Lance Berkman, Carlos Lee and Hunter Pence had RBI singles against reliever Jonathan Broxton (1-1), and Brad Ausmus added a two-run single against the right-hander as the Astros won for the eighth time in nine games. Houston also completed its first three-game sweep at Dodger Stadium since September 25-27, 1992.

Michael Bourn capped the rally with a sacrifice fly, giving Houston a 7-3 lead. The Dodgers' bullpen came in with a 2.72 ERA, second best in the majors.

"It's tough," catcher Russell Martin said. "A guy goes six innings and doesn't give up any hits, and you take him out after one hit and the bullpen gives it up for him. Everyone feels bad. You want to win every game you can when a guy throws his heart out like that."

The Dodgers have dropped four straight after winning 10 of 11.

Kuroda allowed a run and just one hit over 623 innings, struck out five, walked three and hit a batter in his eighth big league start after 11 seasons with Hiroshima of the Japanese Pacific League.

The right-hander remained winless in his last seven starts since his Dodgers debut on April 4, when he allowed a run and three hits over seven innings in a 7-1 win at San Diego.

Kuroda was bidding to become the second Japanese-born pitcher to throw a no-hitter in the majors. Hideo Nomo had one for Los Angeles on Sept. 17, 1996, beating the Colorado Rockies 9-0 at Coors Field. No Dodger has thrown a no-hitter since, but Nomo had another one April 4, 2001, at Baltimore in his Boston Red Sox debut.

The no-hit bid ended when Pence got a 2-1 slider he liked and slapped a clean single in the hole past third baseman Blake DeWitt with two outs in the seventh and the Dodgers leading 2-0 on James Loney's two-run homer in the first.

Pence's hit off Kuroda came with one of the pink bats teammate Miguel Tejada was using on Mother's Day in acknowledgment of the fight against breast cancer.

Kuroda then walked Ty Wigginton and had a 1-0 count on pinch hitter Geoff Blum before manager Joe Torre replaced him with lefty Joe Beimel.

"He was tired," Torre said. "There was a lot of emotion. When you are pitching a close game with a no-hitter on top of it, it takes a lot more out of you. We finally got a pitcher who pitched as well as Kuroda did today and it didn't stand up."

Geoff Geary pitched one inning for the win, and Jose Valverde got the final out for his eighth save after Doug Brocail gave up two runs in the ninth.