Crack in Nomo’s Armor Is a Broken Fingernail : Dodgers: Rookie in need of a manicure after lasting only four innings in 4-0 loss. Astros’ Drabek throws three-hitter.

The Dodgers stood dumbfounded on the field Tuesday night, hardly believing this could be happening before their own eyes.

They watched as the Houston Astros became the first team in two months to defeat Hideo Nomo, 4-0, in front of a season-high crowd of 39,295 at the Astrodome.

Sure, no one in this game is invincible. Greg Maddux doesn’t win every game. Frank Thomas doesn’t hit homers every at-bat. The Cleveland Indians even lose games once in a while.

Yet, after watching Nomo dominate the National League the last two months, making hitters look worse than a weekend duffer on the golf course, the Dodgers finally came to the cruel realization that Nomo is human.

“I guess even Nomo’s entitled to an off night,” Dodger catcher Mike Piazza said, “Just like everyone else. It’s just weird to see it happen to Nomo.”

While the Astros were proudly calling this their biggest victory of the season, hoping their fans might one day even start showing interest in them, Nomo sat passively at a news conference deflating the Astros’ ego.

The reason Nomo lasted only four innings--yielding four hits and three earned runs while striking out only one batter--was not because of the Astros’ prowess, he explained.

Instead, it was because of a tiny crack on the fingernail of his middle finger, preventing him from properly gripping his forkball.

“When I was pitching, it hurt,” said Nomo (7-2, 2.10 earned-run average), whose seven-game winning streak ended. “You can understand just by watching today’s game how it affected me.”

The Dodgers and Nomo are confident the cracked nail won’t prevent Nomo from making his next scheduled start Sunday against Cincinnati. They plan to treat the nail simply with the use of fingernail polish, trainer Bill Buhler said. If it’s absolutely necessary, he’ll apply a fake nail on Nomo’s finger.

Nomo reassured everyone that he’ll be just fine. He didn’t want to make alibis, and went out of his way to praise the Astros, but it was clear from the outset this was not the Nomo that everyone is used to seeing.

Nomo, who has a league-leading 139 strikeouts, barely even gave himself a chance to strike out anyone. He reached a two-strike count on only three of the 19 batters he faced, striking out only James Mouton in the second inning.

Really, it was disastrous from the outset. Craig Biggio hit a sharp one-out single to left field in the first inning. He stole second base on the next pitch, and again on the next pitch, stole third and scored on Piazza’s throw that sailed into left field.

“That kind of set the tone for the whole game,” Astro center fielder Brian Hunter said. “It made him lose his concentration. I think we got into his head a little bit.”

Said Dave Wallace, Dodger pitching coach: “No, I don’t believe that. I haven’t seen Nomo rattled yet.”

Well, whatever the case, Nomo next fell behind 3-and-0 to Jeff Bagwell, and watched him send his fastball into the left-field seats.

Just like that, Nomo yielded more runs to the first three hitters than he had in any of his previous six starts .

Nomo, who had yielded only four runs in his last five starts combined, came into the dugout after the fourth and summoned Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda. He pointed at his finger. Lasorda asked if it hurt. Nomo nodded, yes, and was taken out of the game.

“I didn’t know anything about it,” Lasorda said. “I just thought he didn’t think he had as good of stuff tonight. But when he showed me his nail, I didn’t want to take a chance with him.”

Said Nomo: “I couldn’t have pitched any more.”

The Astro fans, with a walk-up crowd of about 20,000 to see Nomo, relished the moment. Most came out for the sole purpose of seeing Nomo, but suddenly, were taking great delight in seeing someone conquer the Japanese hero.

“I think we were all pretty nervous going in,” Hunter said. “It was like a playoff game for us. Everyone just wanted that chance to finally beat him.”

Astro starter Doug Drabek (6-5) celebrated his 33rd birthday by pitching a three-hit shutout, striking out nine without allowing a walk. He retired 21 consecutive batters after yielding a two-out double to Raul Mondesi in the first inning, and didn’t allow another runner to reach second base.

“I’ve been through a lot of playoffs,” Drabek said, “but this was a special game. I think we all wanted to prove something tonight. You couldn’t help but get caught up in all of the hype.”