Kent's 11th-Hour Homer Gives Dodgers Come-From-Ahead Win

                After coughing up a five-run lead and heading for extra innings, you’d think the Dodger offense would just roll over and die, and drop their fifth straight game to Houston.

                Not so fast. Apparently, these are the new-and-improved Dodgers, who have scored double-digit hits in each of their last two games. True, they lost the first, but last night three old hands were there to right the ship after the youngsters nearly caused it to capsize.

                Jeff Kent hit a solo homer in the 11^th inning to give the Dodgers a 7-6, giving them their first win against the Astros this season and crawling back within 2½ of Arizona for first place in the NL West. Also coming up big was Chan-Ho Park, who continues to get it done despite having started the season in Triple-A in favor of, er, Esteban Loiaza. Park got out of a jam in the ninth and pitched a solid tenth for the win. Takashi Saito looked good in the bottom of the 11^th, retiring the side in order for his 13^th save.

                The Dodger kids looked good early on, staking Clayton Kershaw to a 6-1 through the top of the sixth. Russell Martin had hits in his first three at-bats, collecting his team-leading ninth homer and three RBIs, and Kent, James Loney and Matt Kemp each added RBI hits.

                But the wheels started to come off in the sixth. Kershaw, who had allowed only Hunter Pence’s first-inning RBI single, left the game with two on and two out. He was later charged for two runs when reliever Brian Falkenborg allowed a three-run homer to Ty Wigginton. The Dodgers would allow the Astros to tie the score with yet another two-out hit, with Jonathan Broxton blowing the save by allowing Carlos Lee to hit a two-RBI double. Recall that Broxton also blew the Mothers’ Day game at Dodger Stadium against these Astros, spoiling Hiroki Kuroda’s one-hitter.

                Fortunately for the Dodgers, Park and Saito were there to prevent further damage. The Dodger relief corps held the Astros to just two hits over the final four innings, one of which was of the infield variety. Unfortunately for Kershaw, they couldn’t hold on to the early lead to give Kershaw the first MLB win he’s been seeking. But the Dodgers will take any win they can get.

                The one thing the Dodgers can’t seem to win is the war against the disabled list. However, on Tuesday the Dodgers showed that they may be winning a small battle or two. Kuroda is slated to pitch today against the Astros, Brad Penny is likely to pitch Saturday in San Francisco, and Nomar Garciaparra and Andruw Jones showed no signs of regressing.

In the most key of battles, though, it seems that Rafael Furcal left Las Vegas after complaining about his sore back, and this is likely to set him back even more.  As usual, this is bad news for everyone except the guy who gets to play in the big leagues in Furcal’s spot, who in this case is Jason Repko. Technically called up to replace the injured Juan Pierre, Repko had a busy hat day, trading his Las Vegas 51s cap for Dodger headgear and ultimately wearing the Golden Sombrero, striking out his first four appearance (in the leadoff spot, no less) in the Dodgers’ series-opening 4-1 loss.

Furcal's ongoing absence is also good news for shortstops Angel Berroa and Luis Maza, who continue to show why they deserve to be either in the minors or on a crappy team like Kansas City (hey, guess where Berroa came from!). And likely good news for Mark Sweeney, who continues to be the first pinch-hitter off the bench despite an atrocious .095 average. And good news for the Diamondbacks, Padres, Giants and Rockies. But other than that, it's bad news.