Drew Able to Finish the Job

The Dodgers will sell their 3 million tickets this season, to some of the most loyal customers in baseball. Fans raised on Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale do not ask their home team for slugfests, only victories.

So two runs sounded mighty fine to the faithful Tuesday. The Dodger offense continued its disappearing act for most of the evening, but no one much cared when J.D. Drew singled home Kenny Lofton with the winning run in the ninth inning of a 2-1 victory over the Chicago Cubs.

Derek Lowe and Takashi Saito teamed on a five-hitter, with Saito striking out four in two innings for his first major league victory. Drew walked off the field to the chant of “J.D. Drew! J.D. Drew!” to the same beat that accompanied last year’s chants of “Hee-Seop Choi! Hee-Seop Choi!”

Drew called the serenade “pretty cool,” but then anything would be after the reception he received last April, in his first season with the Dodgers. He is hitting .327, after starting last season hitting .000, so he chuckled when asked to identify the key to his success this season.

“Not starting 0 for 25,” he said. “That’s a big key.”

After Lowe scattered five hits over seven innings, Saito retired the final six Cubs in order, without a ball leaving the infield. His earned-run average remains at 0.00 through the first six appearances of his major league career.

And now he has a game ball for his first victory, a souvenir for which he waited 13 years. He is a rookie in name only, a 36-year-old veteran of the Japanese leagues.

In 1993, he won his first game, at 23, for the Yokohama Bay Stars. He threw that game ball to the fans, he said. He’ll keep this one.

The Dodgers have scored seven runs in the first five games of this homestand -- three runs once, two runs once, one run twice and no runs once.

So the hitters got together for a pregame meeting Tuesday, finally. On most clubs, hitters meet before the first game of every series to review the opposing pitchers. Under Manager Grady Little and hitting coach Eddie Murray, the Dodgers have not done so.

“We just haven’t had any this year,” Drew said.

To the Dodger hitters, this is a slump, not a trend. They don’t hit well, the other guys pitch well, this too shall pass.

“You can be the best hitting team in baseball, and they still can’t score every day,” Lofton said. “You’ve got to take the bumps and hope the bruises don’t go too deep.”

And, in the meantime, play small ball. The Dodgers scored their first run in the fifth inning, when Rafael Furcal had a bunt single, took second on a ground ball -- avoiding a double play by running with the pitch -- and came home on a double by Drew.

The Cubs tried small ball too, no surprise as the Dodgers kept an embarrassing streak alive. They have yet to throw out a runner trying to steal this season.

Derrek Lee stole second base Tuesday, and so did Aramis Ramirez, and Juan Pierre. With Sandy Alomar Jr. catching, runners are eight for eight. With Dioner Navarro catching, as he did Tuesday, they’re seven for seven.

The Cubs ran themselves into scoring position three times but finally scored without a stolen base in the seventh inning, when Neifi Perez hit into a force play.

In the ninth, Chicago reliever Will Ohman got the first two outs, then the first two strikes on Lofton. But Lofton took a ball, hit a foul ball, then took three consecutive balls for the walk. After two pickoff attempts, Lofton stole second, from where he scored on Drew’s single.

“Speed is always a key to the game,” Lofton said. “People don’t look at speed guys as important, but speed guys are just as important as power hitters.”