Lowe Keeps Cool, Wins

Hey, why not give the home team a little help?

So, when Russell Martin set up inside in the second inning, a fan behind home plate yelled, “Inside!” When the catcher set up away on the next pitch the fan hollered, “Away!”

When he heard that, Derek Lowe aborted his windup and complained to the umpire. The Dodgers must have been horrified, since Lowe struggles with his concentration from time to time, and the last thing he needed was a high-decibel fan throwing him off his game.

But Lowe remained calm, and the Dodgers remained hot. Lowe gave up one run over seven innings, Kenny Lofton and Wilson Betemit backed him with home runs, and the Dodgers won their seventh consecutive game on Friday, a 6-2 victory over the Florida Marlins.

So the Dodgers silenced the Marlins, and their co-conspirator in the stands.

The umpire told Lowe he couldn’t eject the fan for tipping pitch locations and warned the pitcher against stopping his delivery in the stretch, at the risk of a balk.

That left this curious question: In a stadium big enough for the Miami Dolphins, how could Lowe pick out the voice of one fan?

“When there’s 18 people here?” he said.

Lowe had a point, if by exaggeration. In a stadium that seats 75,000, the Marlins announced they had sold 15,416 tickets, with maybe half that many people in attendance. The Marlins are playing surprisingly well, but last winter’s fire sale inoculated the locals against wild-card fever.

Rafael Furcal singled home the Dodgers’ first run, extending his hitting streak to 11 games, a span in which he is hitting .435. Lofton had three hits, J.D. Drew had two, James Loney tripled, and even Lowe pitched in at the plate.

In the third inning, he preceded Furcal’s single by working Florida starter Anibal Sanchez for an eight-pitch at-bat, including three two-strike fouls. In the seventh, his final inning, he drew a two-out walk and eventually scored.

“He stayed strong up to that point,” Dodgers Manager Grady Little said. “He took that tour around the bases, and that kind of did him in.”

Still, Lowe (9-7) delivered his finest performance in two months. He scattered five hits over seven innings, striking out five and walking none, in winning consecutive starts for the first time since the first week of June.

His recent starts had bordered on hideous: 63 hits in 37 innings, with an earned-run average of 8.27.

“I don’t think it was physical,” pitching coach Rick Honeycutt said. “It may have been more mental.”

On Friday, he threw more changeups, not so many cut fastballs and relied on his sinker, getting 12 of 21 outs on ground balls.

Yet he said he won this game with his mind more than his arm. The Dodgers led 3-0 in the sixth inning, but Joe Borchard singled, Alfredo Amezaga doubled and the Marlins had the potential tying run at the plate with none out.

“You’ve still got those ghosts in the back of your mind,” Lowe said.

Dan Uggla struck out. Mike Jacobs flied out, driving in a run. Miguel Cabrera, maybe the best hitter in baseball not named Albert Pujols, grounded out.

“I was able to regroup and make quality pitches instead of having things snowball,” Lowe said. “That, to me, was the biggest difference.”

The Dodgers lost eight in a row through July 26, plunging 7 1/2 games out of first place. They took a day off, and they’ve won their next seven, fortified by Greg Maddux and Julio Lugo and Betemit, and now they’re two games out.

Wonder what the fan behind home plate has to say about that.

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Turning it around

After a tough stretch in mid-July -- losing 13 of 14 games -- the Dodgers are now unbeaten in August and are on a seven-game winning streak:

*--* Date Opponent Result July 28 Washington W 13-1 July 29 Washington W 7-5 July 30 Washington W 4-3 Aug. 1 at Cincinnati W 10-4 Aug. 2 at Cincinnati W 5-3 Aug. 3 at Cincinnati W 3-0 Aug. 4 at Florida W 6-2

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Source: MLB.com