Dodgers defeat Houston Astros

HOUSTON – When the sleepy Dodgers arrived at Minute Maid Park for today’s early getaway game, many of them were still adjusting to life in a post-Furcal world.

Late Wednesday – too late for some players to hear, apparently – the team announced that Rafael Furcal, out two months because of a sore back, would miss at least two more months because of surgery. The 75-minute procedure, performed this morning at Marina del Rey Hospital by Robert Watkins, went according to plan. Furcal is scheduled to be released Friday and will begin rehabbing in the next few days.

In the meantime, his teammates will have to find a way to soldier on without him. And the recipe they tried today might just be a winning one. It called for some solid starting pitching by the National League’s stingiest staff, some clutch relief work by the league’s second-best bullpen and just enough offense to make it all stand up.

And it worked like a charm in a 5-2 victory over the Houston Astros, the Dodgers’ third consecutive win.

Right-hander Chad Billingsley provided the first ingredient, holding the Astros to two unearned runs in eight efficient innings. Takashi Saito provided the second, pitching a scoreless ninth for his 14th save.

And the offense was split between James Loney and Andre Ethier, each of whom socked a homer off Houston starter Brandon Backe (5-9).

For Ethier, his ninth homer was his sixth hit of the four-game series. Loney, who also had an RBI single in a three-run first, finished with two hits for the third time in the four games here. He also scored twice and drove in two runs.

Blake DeWitt, who started the afternoon with three hits – and 11 strikeouts – in his last 10 games also pitched in with a two-run single, his fourth and fifth RBI since June 1.

Billingsley (8-7) was perfect through 3 1/3 innings before Mark Loretta singled to center. And he would have had a shutout had Jeff Kent’s back not stiffened up.

After ending the Dodgers’ half of the fifth by lining to third, Kent came out of the game and Luis Maza replaced him at second. And it was Maza’s two-out error on Geoff Blum’s routine grounder that opened the door to a two-run Astros rally.

Kent’s problem is not considered serious, which is good news for the Dodgers since he had walked, singled and scored a run before he left, giving him hits in five consecutive games and raising his average to .380 over the last 15.

And the Dodgers are expecting more good news when they get to San Francisco, where infielder Nomar Garciaparra and outfielder Andruw Jones will meet them for the start of a three-game series with the Giants on Friday. Garciaparra, out more than two months with a calf strain, and Jones, who underwent knee surgery five weeks ago, cut short a rehab assignment with the Dodgers’ triple-A team in Las Vegas after three games in which they combined to go nine for 16 with a homer, four RBI and four runs scored.

The team did get one piece of bad news, though, when right-hander Brad Penny was scratched from Saturday’s start. Penny, on the disabled list since June 15, will pitch to hitters in either a simulated game or a rehab start over the weekend and is expected to rejoin the rotation before the All-Star break.

 kevin.baxter@latimes.com