Dodgers Let Down Dreifort in 3-0 Loss

Toto, we are not in Pittsburgh anymore. The clutch hits, the late-inning rallies, the quality at-bats -- not to mention the feeble opponent -- that were so prominent in the Dodgers’ three-game sweep of the Pirates over the weekend were all no-shows Monday night.

Philadelphia right-hander Brett Myers, mixing a lively fastball and a devastating overhand curve, gave up six hits over 7 2/3 shutout innings to outduel right-hander Darren Dreifort and lead the Phillies to a 3-0 win before 24,241 in Dodger Stadium.

Dreifort threw what Manager Jim Tracy called “maybe as good a game as he has had in his career,” giving up two runs and six hits in seven innings and matching a career high with 11 strikeouts.

But the Dodgers failed to score after loading the bases with one out in the third, a rally that ended with Paul Lo Duca’s double-play grounder, and left two on in the eighth and the ninth, as they were shut out for the third time this season.

“We pitched better than great,” Tracy said, “but when you can’t score a run, there are no games you can win.”

Left-hander Dan Plesac relieved Myers (2-2) with two on and two outs in the eighth and retired Shawn Green on a fielder’s choice, and closer Jose Mesa survived a scare in the ninth to record his sixth save, as the Phillies won for the sixth time in seven games.

With a superb pitching staff that has given up the fewest runs in the major leagues, “we don’t need to score a touchdown every night to win,” Tracy said.

A field goal would have given them a chance Monday night, but the Dodgers couldn’t even muster an extra point.

The middle of the Dodger order -- Green, Fred McGriff and Adrian Beltre -- was hitless in 12 at-bats, and Beltre seemed to regress after his five-for-11, three-RBI weekend ended a two-for-34 slump.

Beltre reverted to his bad habit of swinging at sweeping sliders off the plate, striking out in the fourth and tapping out to the mound in the seventh. Then in the ninth, he popped to second on a hanging breaking ball, a mistake Mesa got away with.

“Offensively, we hurt ourselves tonight,” Tracy said. “We had an ideal situation in the third and did not capitalize. We couldn’t get the two-out hit in the eighth and ninth. The shame of it is the guy who was victimized.”

That would be Dreifort, who reached double figures in strikeouts for only the third time in his career and struck out the heart of the Phillies’ order -- Bobby Abreu, Pat Burrell and Jim Thome -- in an overpowering sixth.

Dreifort threw 114 pitches, 78 for strikes, providing the Dodgers with their 18th quality start (six innings or more, three earned runs or less) in 26 games this season.

But a questionable fielding decision by Dreifort contributed to a Philadelphia run in the top of the first, extending to 11 games a streak in which Dodger opponents have scored first.

Jimmy Rollins opened the game with a double to left and took third on Ricky Ledee’s grounder to second. Abreu walked, putting runners on first and third, and Burrell followed with a high chopper to the front of the mound.

Dreifort fielded the ball about 45 feet from the plate and would have easily nailed Rollins had the pitcher thrown home. But Dreifort instead made a long and wild throw to second, the ball nicking off Alex Cora’s glove and going into center field for an error that enabled Abreu to take second while Rollins scored.

Dreifort escaped further trouble by striking out Thome and retiring Mike Lieberthal on an infield popup, but the Phillies extended their lead to 2-0 in the fourth when Thome, playing his first game in Dodger Stadium, smashed a 2-and-1 Dreifort fastball into the left-field pavilion for an opposite-field home run, his fourth of the season.

“That was a bad pitch to Thome,” Dreifort said. “He’s a big, strong dude, and it was up and over the plate.”

Philadelphia tacked on another run in the eighth when Lieberthal doubled to left-center off Dodger reliever Guillermo Mota and scored on David Bell’s single to left for a 3-0 lead.