ATLANTA -- Mike Hampton hasn't been dominating on the mound. Pitching for a team like the Atlanta Braves, it's not necessary.
Hampton won his fifth in a row -- his longest streak in more than two seasons -- and the Braves defeated the slumping Los Angeles Dodgers 6-4 Saturday.
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| Marcus Giles crosses the plate on Chipper Jones' bases-loaded triple. (AP) |
"Run support takes care of a lot of things," Hampton said. "I don't have to go out there thinking I have to throw a shutout or give up one or two runs. If you make a quality start with our offense, that's good enough to win."
The Braves are the NL's highest-scoring team, a strength that has contributed greatly to Hampton's best run since he won five in a row to start an ill-fated stint with Colorado in 2001. During this streak, he has allowed 21 earned runs in 41 innings, an ERA of 4.61.
Hampton (8-5) didn't give up a hit to the Dodgers until the fourth and cruised into the seventh having given up just one run and three hits. Los Angeles knocked him out with a pair of two-out, run-scoring doubles by Cesar Izturis and pinch-hitter Mike Kinkade.
"It was a battle from the first pitch," said Hampton, who gave up six hits and was charged with all four runs in 6 2/3 innings. "Some days you've got it, some days you don't. Today, I had to battle the whole game."
Los Angeles lost its fifth in a row but finally managed to score more than three runs -- the first time that's happened since July 22.
The Dodgers had scored only 11 runs in their previous nine games, including a 2-0 shutout loss to Atlanta on Friday. They dropped below .500 (54-55) for the first time since May 6, when their record was 16-17.
"It's real frustrating," said catcher Paul Lo Duca, who was ejected for arguing a called third strike in the eighth. "It just seems like nothing is going our way right now. But I think we're compounding it, too."
The Dodgers did manage to make the game respectable in the seventh. After Hampton was lifted, Kevin Gryboski gave up a bloop single to Ricky Henderson, which drove home Kinkade to pull the Dodgers within 6-4.
Ray King got the third out, striking out pinch-hitter Adrian Beltre, and pitched a scoreless eighth. John Smoltz struck out the side in the ninth for his 42nd save in 45 chances. In all, the Dodgers whiffed 11 times.
"I've got to make sure I don't say anything except, 'Keep going,"' said Smoltz, on pace for a major league-record 62 saves. "It doesn't take much in this role to get you off track."
The Braves scored in both the first and third innings against Andy Ashby (2-9), each time when Gary Sheffield grounded out with a runner at third.
In the fifth, Hampton helped himself at the plate with a leadoff single to left. The Braves loaded the bases with one out on Marcus Giles' walk and Sheffield's infield single, which slipped under Ashby's glove on the right side of the mound.
On the very next pitch, Jones broke the game open with a liner into the right-field corner. When the ball got caught up in the padding, all three runners scored and Jones cruised into third with a triple. That was it for Ashby, who gave up eight hits in 4 1-3 innings.
The Dodgers' frustration was evident in the eighth, when both Lo Duca and manager Jim Tracy were ejected by plate umpire Joe West after a disputed third strike.
When Jeromy Burnitz was called out on strikes to end the game, he also argued with West on their way off the field.
"I just told him to look up the word integrity," Burnitz said.
This was a matchup between teams at opposite ends of the NL hitting charts. The Braves lead the league in homers and runs, while the Dodgers are by far the worst team in those two categories.
Robin Ventura, starting his first game for Los Angeles since being acquired from the Yankees, wasn't much help. He went 0-for-4.
Notes
- Green, 13-of-19 vs. Hampton in his career, went hitless in two at-bats against the Atlanta starter but did drive in the first Dodgers run with a sacrifice fly in the sixth.
- The game was halted briefly in the sixth when West ordered the lights turned on after late-afternoon shadows crept over the left side of the field.
- The crowd of 47,506 was the third sellout of the season at Turner Field.
AP NEWS
The Associated Press News Service
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