Astacio Handles Braves

Dodger Manager Bill Russell didn’t want to say it.

Pedro Astacio didn’t want to believe it.

But there is no denying it. Astacio needed a big performance Saturday against the Atlanta Braves at Turner Field to keep his position in the rotation secure.

He got it, going 7 1/3 innings in a 4-1 Dodger victory before a crowd of 49,758. Astacio (6-7) yielded a run and three hits, striking out six and walking one in one of his strongest performances of the season, helping the Dodgers end a three-game losing streak and cut San Francisco’s NL West lead to three games.

Astacio suffered through a seven-game losing streak earlier this season. In his last outing, he lasted only 3 2/3 innings against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field, giving up five earned runs and nine hits.

Add to that the arrival of 20-year-old Dennis Reyes, who has impressed the Dodgers with his potential and poise, and it doesn’t take a baseball genius to see where this was heading.

Reyes over Astacio for a starting spot?

“When one guy is pitching well and the other is not,” Russell said, “you’d be stupid not to think like that.

“But his stuff was there [Saturday]. He hasn’t been pitching like this. This was the Astacio we like to see.”

The biggest difference was that he got ahead on the hitters, and kept the leadoff man off base in every inning.

“It’s tough to string anything together like that,” conceded Atlanta third baseman Chipper Jones.

Astacio said it all began for him Saturday with a positive frame of mind, despite the fact that he had never beaten the Braves, going 0-9 against them with a 4.55 earned-run average.

“If you think a guy is going to beat you,” he said, “then he will beat you. If you think that way, then it is going to happen. Everybody has some struggles, but you have to continue to fight.”

And how did it feel to finally put something in the win column against the Braves?

“That’s over,” Astacio said.

A six-year veteran, Astacio said he was never worried that his spot in the rotation was in jeopardy.

“I had maybe two bad games,” Astacio said. “I do not really think I was struggling.”

The Dodgers had suddenly started struggling after winning 11 of 12 games. They had run into Florida’s Kevin Brown on Wednesday, and Denny Neagle of the Braves on Friday night. Ahead were John Smoltz today and Tom Glavine on Monday in the finale of this four-game series.

So the only weak link figured to be Saturday’s starter for the Braves, rookie Kevin Millwood, a 22-year-old making his first major league start.

The Dodgers got to him, scoring four runs in five innings, but he was hardly a weak link. If a few close plays had gone the other way, it would have been a tighter game.

Raul Mondesi’s double into the left-field corner in the second inning drove in one run.

The Dodgers made the score 4-0 in the fourth. With two out, Wilton Guerrero singled home Mike Piazza, who opened the inning with a double.

With the bases loaded, Astacio beat out a slow grounder to short, allowing a run to score. Then Brett Butler beat out a grounder to second and another run scored.

In his five innings, Millwood gave up seven hits, struck out three and walked two.

The only run Astacio gave up came with two out in the fifth inning when pinch-hitter Tony Graffanino homered to left.

With one out in the eighth inning, Astacio had exceeded the 100-pitch count, having thrown 102.

Faced with a Braves’ lineup that does its best swinging from the left side, Russell brought in left-hander Scott Radinsky, who responded by retiring five of the last six Atlanta hitters, yielding only a single by Blauser, to earn his first save of the season.