Lowe Throws Nothing but Sink in 2-1 Victory

Brad Penny brings four-seam heat. Greg Maddux brings Hall of Fame sizzle.

Lately, though, Derek Lowe has brought home the bacon.

The Dodgers right-hander gave his victory-starved team a large portion of protein, tossing eight nearly flawless innings in a 2-1 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers on Wednesday night at Miller Park.

So concerned was owner Frank McCourt after the Dodgers lost their first two games of the series that he flew in for the finale instead of meeting the team in New York today. McCourt sat in the front row with two of his sons and senior advisor Tom Lasorda, brow furrowed until Takashi Saito recorded the last out for his 18th save.

Lasorda barely had time for a bratwurst, the game whizzing by in 2 hours 4 minutes. Lowe needed only 79 pitches -- nearly all of them sinkers -- giving up three hits and one unearned run while walking one.

“It was a win we needed,” Lowe said. “They are an aggressive team and I kept throwing sinkers. I threw fewer than three or four changeups and curveballs.”

Chris Capuano, the Brewers’ left-handed ace, was nearly as tough, but rookie Matt Kemp solved him twice. Kemp, an outfielder with tremendous power potential who spent the last two months at triple-A Las Vegas learning to lay off breaking balls outside the strike zone, tripled to lead off the fifth and scored on Rafael Furcal’s fly ball to tie the score, 1-1. Then in the seventh, he followed Russell Martin’s double with a single for the deciding run.

Lowe (14-8) and Saito made the runs stand up. Lowe is 5-1 with a 1.56 earned-run average since Aug. 1, which not coincidentally is the day Maddux entered the Dodgers clubhouse. In his previous 37 innings, Lowe had given up 36 runs and lost confidence.

“I’ve learned a ton from him,” Lowe said. “When he talks about pitching, he doesn’t talk about today. He talks about why he had success when he was 19-2 [in 1995]. He talks about everything. It’s been easy for me to relate because we throw the same.”

The learning curve couldn’t have come at a more opportune time. The Dodgers are clinging to first place in the National League West and tonight begin a four-game series against the league’s best team, the New York Mets.

Perhaps with that series in mind, Manager Grady Little gave slumping first baseman Nomar Garciaparra the day off in a last-minute decision.

“I like playing every day, especially down the stretch,” Garciaparra said. “But it’s not a problem. Grady usually has good reasons for doing things. It usually works out.”

Garciaparra was 0 for 7 in the first two games of the series despite getting a day off Sunday, the last game of the Dodgers’ homestand. Olmedo Saenz had been three for five against Capuano and Garciaparra was two for 10 against him.

So Little went with Saenz, who hadn’t done anything but pinch-hit in a month. Saenz didn’t fare any better than most of the Dodgers, going 0 for 2 with a walk.

“Nomar is doing a lot of work, trying to get his swing right,” Little said. “Olmedo needed a game of at-bats to do his job coming off the bench later on.”

J.D. Drew also sat out for the second game in a row, so the meat of the batting order should be rested for what promises to be a tough weekend in New York.

“Going in, this was a game we had to win,” Lowe said. “The Mets are going to be tough and the Padres aren’t going away.”

steve.henson@latimes.com