Houston Has No Problem With Dodgers

Maybe the Dodgers will earn the National League wild-card berth despite squandering so many opportunities recently.

Then again, is this really a playoff-caliber team?

The Dodgers stirred more doubt Tuesday night in an 18-4 blowout loss to the Houston Astros before 24,752 at Minute Maid Park -- the team’s most lopsided defeat since 2001.

“They beat us up,” said Manager Jim Tracy, who was a rookie manager in 2001 when the Chicago Cubs blew out the Dodgers, 20-1, at Wrigley Field.

“They hit the ball, hit it often, and they scored an awful lot of runs.”

The Dodgers (67-63) dropped their third in a row on a night wild-card co-leaders Philadelphia and Florida lost again, flopping in the opener of a three-game series as the Astros scored their most runs of the season and matched a high mark with 17 hits.

Although Philadelphia and Florida have gone 3-7 and 4-6, respectively, in their last 10 games, the Dodgers have gained only half a game in the wild-card standings, and are 2 1/2 games back in a crowded pack.

The Dodgers hope to sprint to the finish after struggling down the stretch the last two seasons, but they can’t even get started.

“It’s very frustrating, because you can’t expect both of those teams to keep playing that badly, “ said center fielder Dave Roberts, who had two of the Dodgers’ eight hits.

“You can’t expect Philadelphia and Florida to play the rest of the way like they have been lately. We know that they’re both good teams, so for us to only gain [half a game] with them struggling now.... Like I said, it’s frustrating.”

Houston pounded Odalis Perez (10-10) in the worst start of his career, blowing open the game with a six-run fifth to take a 10-3 lead.

The Astros sent 12 batters to the plate and had six hits in the inning, including Jeff Kent’s one-out, bases-clearing double. The former San Francisco Giant second baseman paced the Astro attack with three hits and five runs batted in.

“He struggled throwing strikes and he was up in the zone,” catcher Paul Lo Duca said of Perez. “They also hit some good pitches too.”

Tracy permitted Perez -- staked to a 3-0 lead in the first as Fred McGriff hit his first home run since June 6 -- to face another five batters after Kent’s clutch hit gave the Astros a 7-3 lead. Tracy finally turned to the bullpen after Astro starter Ron Villone (6-2), who struck out to start the inning, knocked in Houston’s sixth run with a two-out single.

Jeff Bagwell’s 29th homer was among the 10 hits and 10 runs Perez gave up in 4 2/3 innings. Perez’s earned-run average increased from 4.34 to 4.76, and the left-hander continued to struggle against Houston (69-62), which leads the NL Central by half a game over the Cubs.

Perez went 4-0 with a 2.76 ERA in his previous four starts, but the Astros weren’t impressed.

“It was like they knew what I was going to throw,” said Perez, 0-3 with a 15.15 ERA in four games against the Astros.

“I was feeling great. I had good velocity on my change and my breaking ball. Everything was good. I wouldn’t say I was making mistakes or nothing like that. They were hitting the ball.”

Perez did not criticize Tracy for leaving him in so long.

“It’s his decision,” he said. “If he thinks he can keep me there for longer, it’s not a bad idea. I’ve been having games where I allow two, three, four runs, and they leave me there and I go further.”

The Astros increased their lead to 15-3 with a five-run sixth against left-hander Victor Alvarez, who escaped a bases-loaded jam after relieving Perez in the fifth. Paul Shuey gave up three hits and three runs in the seventh, and Paul Quantrill worked a scoreless eighth. The Astros scored in every other inning except the second.

“You lose three [straight] games and you pick up [half a game],” Lo Duca said, shaking his head. “We could have made up some ground