Astros Use ‘B’ Team to Beat Nomo

The Houston Astros’ Killer B’s killed Dodger pitcher Hideo Nomo.

Jeff Bagwell homered, Craig Biggio went three for four and scored twice and Derek Bell drove in two runs as the Astros defeated the Dodgers, 4-2, Thursday night before 49,656 at Dodger Stadium.

“He’s the greatest hitter,” Nomo said of Bagwell, who has 21 homers and a league-leading 71 RBIs.

The Dodgers, who have 19 come-from-behind victories, had a chance to win the game in their final at-bat after Delino DeShields’ two-out ninth-inning double and Roger Cedeno’s walk against reliever Billy Wagner, who registered seven strikeouts in 2 2/3 innings.

Wagner was replaced by Todd Jones, and catcher Mike Piazza, who had two singles in his first four at-bats, flew out to right to end the game.

Nomo (8-6), who suffered a strained calf in his previous outing, got off to a shaky start, giving up two runs on two hits, a walk and a wild pitch in the first inning.

“I had bad rhythm in the first inning,” Nomo said through an interpreter. “But after the first inning I got into a good rhythm.”

After giving up a leadoff single to John Cangelosi, Nomo, who entered the game with a 1-2 record and a 6.60 earned-run average against the Astros, gave up a bunt single to Biggio. Nomo fielded the bunt, but instead of throwing to first, he tried to beat Biggio to the bag and lost the race.

Nomo walked Bagwell to load the bases and Bell drove in Cangelosi when he forced Bagwell at second. Biggio scored on Nomo’s fourth wild pitch of the season.

But Nomo, who threw 23 pitches in the first inning, settled down, giving up one hit and registering eight strikeouts in the next five innings before Bagwell drilled a homer into the Dodger bullpen with one out in the sixth inning.

“I got ahead in the count so I looked for a fastball and I got one,” said Bagwell, who came into the game batting .571 with two homers against Nomo. “Against Nomo you have to try to get a fastball for a strike because he doesn’t usually throw his forkball in the strike zone.”

With reliever Scott Radinsky warming up in the bullpen, Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda elected not to pull Nomo for a pinch-hitter with runners on first and second and two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning, and Nomo struck out.

Lasorda said he made the move because his bullpen was overworked on the recent seven-game trip.

“We had two guys that we couldn’t put in at all and if we put the third guy in and he had to pitch two or three innings, we would have had two guys that would have been shut down for tomorrow,” Lasorda said. “We figured since it was the sixth inning and we needed one run, we figured we could get one run in three innings, but we didn’t.”

Nomo said he wasn’t surprised that Lasorda let him hit.

“I was intending to go to the batter’s box, because yesterday the Dodgers used all their middle relievers,” Nomo said.

Nomo, who threw 84 pitches in the first six innings, came within 10 feet of giving up a leadoff homer to Orlando Miller in the seventh inning, but Cedeno caught Miller’s fly on the warning track.

Nomo departed in the eighth inning after giving up a leadoff triple to Biggio. Right fielder Raul Mondesi tried to make a diving catch on Biggio’s sinking liner, but the ball went off his glove and into foul territory.

Reliever Antonio Osuna got Bagwell to pop out to first, but Bell drove in Biggio with a fly to right. Mondesi made the diving catch this time, but his throw to the plate was late.

The Dodgers got their only two runs on Eric Karros’ two-run homer in the third inning off Astro starter Donne Wall (5-0), who gave up two runs on seven hits.