Joe Torre misses Dodgers’ big finish

reporting from houston — 

After the Dodgers’ Casey Blake took a called third strike in the first inning of Saturday’s game with the Houston Astros, Blake walked slowly back to the dugout, his dissent with home-plate umpire Paul Emmel plainly obvious.

Moments later Manager Joe Torre took a stronger approach, yelling something from the Dodgers’ dugout at Minute Maid Park that prompted Emmel to eject Torre from the game.

So Torre was in the clubhouse when the Dodgers exploited a huge throwing error by Houston reliever Brandon Lyon in the ninth inning to help break a 3-3 tie and defeat the Astros, 6-3, for their second win in two nights.

“I didn’t curse” at the umpire, Torre said. “He said, ‘I don’t want to hear any more.’ I said, ‘Then get it right,’ and he threw me out.”

Recent call-up John Ely largely got it right as he tried to regain the form that made him successful early this season. Ely, 24, gave up three runs in six innings, fulfilling Torre’s hope that he’d at least keep the Dodgers in the game until the later innings.

But the win went to the Dodgers’ latest relief sensation, 22-year-old Kenley Jansen, a former catcher who retired the side in the eighth inning, earned his first big league victory and lowered his earned-run average to 0.96 in 182/3 innings of work.

“He’s pretty special, especially when you talk about someone switching positions in a year’s time,” Torre said. “It doesn’t matter — lefty, righty — he gets a lot of swings and misses.”

Jansen said the first win “feels awesome,” and added that “I don’t care what my ERA is or stuff like that, I just care about the result.”

In the ninth inning, Lyon walked pinch-hitter Trent Oeltjen and Reed Johnson reached safely on a bunt single along the first base line.

When catcher A.J. Ellis also bunted, Lyon threw the ball in the dirt past Jeff Keppinger, who was covering first base, enabling Oeltjen and Johnson to score and Ellis to reach third. Ellis then scored an insurance run on James Loney’s pinch-hit double.

The Dodgers took a 3-0 lead in the fourth inning against Houston starter Wandy Rodriguez when Blake hit a solo home run to left field and Johnson and Ellis each stroked run-scoring singles.

Houston scored once in the fourth inning when Michael Bourn tripled and scored on an infield single by Keppinger, and twice more in the fifth inning, which included rookie Brett Wallace’s second home run of the season.

Padilla to miss start

Dodgers pitcher Vicente Padilla was scratched from his scheduled Sunday start against Houston because of neck and upper- back pain that resurfaced. Carlos Monasterios was tapped to start in his place.

Padilla had made one start, Monday in San Diego, after coming off the disabled list for a bulging disk in his neck. The Nicaraguan gave up three runs in four innings in that game.

He had made practice throws in recent days without a problem, but the pain resurfaced Friday and “then today it came in a little worse,” trainer Stan Conte said. “He has this pain the middle of his shoulder blades on the left side.”

With 19 games left in the season, Padilla might be done for the year. “It wouldn’t surprise me,” Torre said.

Bench support

With the Dodgers all but mathematically eliminated from the postseason and playing their final series outside their division, Torre filled the starting lineup with several players who spent much of the season in the minor leagues.

They included Ellis, Ely, left fielder Jay Gibbons and first baseman John Lindsey, who made his first major league start after 16 years in the minor leagues.

Lindsey went 0 for 3. But Gibbons, whose home run won Friday’s game, had two more hits Saturday and raised his batting average to .359.

james.peltz@latimes.com