Dodgers fall back out of NL West lead with loss to Pirates

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Regular Season Series
Los Angeles leads 6-4 (as of Tue 9/19)
Mon 4/10	LA 8, @PIT 3	Recap
Tue 4/11	@PIT 7, LA 6	Recap
Wed 4/12	@PIT 9, LA 5	Recap
Thu 4/13	LA 13, @PIT 5	Recap
Fri 6/23	@LA 10, PIT 4	Recap
Sat 6/24	@LA 7, PIT 0	Recap
Sun 6/25	@LA 7, PIT 4	Recap
>Tue 9/19	PIT 10, @LA 6	Box Score
Wed 9/20	PIT 6, @LA 4	Recap
Thu 9/21	@LA 5, PIT 2	Recap
· Complete Schedule: Dodgers | Pirates

Scoring Summary
			PIT	LAD
	1st	R Furcal homered to right.	0	1
	2nd	J Bautista singled to center, X Nady scored, R Paulino to second.	1	1
	4th	X Nady homered to left center.	2	1
	6th	J Bautista homered to left, F Sanchez, J Bay and X Nady scored.	6	1
	7th	R Furcal tripled to deep right, W Betemit scored.	6	2
	7th	K Lofton grounded out to second, R Furcal scored.	6	3
	8th	R Paulino singled to center, F Sanchez and J Bay scored, X Nady to second.	8	3
	8th	X Nady scored, J Bautista to second on wild pitch by B Tomko.	9	3
	8th	R Doumit doubled to right, J Bautista scored.	10	3
	8th	M Anderson homered to right, J Loney and R Martin scored.	10	6
· View complete Play-By-Play

Game Information
Stadium	Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles, CA
Attendance	43,734 (78.1% full) - % is based on regular season capacity
Game Time	3:00
Weather	74 degrees, clear
Wind	2 mph
Umpires	Home Plate - Paul Nauert, First Base - Larry Vanover, Second Base - Greg Gibson, Third Base - Rob Drake

LOS ANGELES -- No amazing comeback this time.

The night after a thrilling win, the Los Angeles Dodgers dropped back into second place in the NL West with a 10-6 loss Tuesday night to the Pittsburgh Pirates, who got a grand slam from Jose Bautista and six strong innings from Ian Snell.

Elias Says
The Pirates defeated the Dodgers, 10-6, on Tuesday night despite striking out 15 times. It was the third time this season that a team scored in double-figures despite at least 15 strikeouts. (The Braves and Nationals did it, both against the Phillies.) There were only two other such games during the live-ball era -- one in 2001, the other in 1975. • For more Elias Says, click here

San Diego regained the division lead with a 5-2 win over Arizona. The Dodgers, meanwhile, lead the NL wild-card race by one game over Philadelphia.

Asked if the Dodgers had a letdown after their dramatic rally in an 11-10, 10-inning victory over the Padres on Monday, Los Angeles manager Grady Little said, "The results appeared that way, but it was the same situation -- we haven't been able to stop the bleeding late."

Snell, who held the Dodgers to one run and five hits, said it was fun to play spoiler.

"I know we're not in a playoff race, so it feels good to say, `Hey, you're not going anywhere if we're not going anywhere," he said. "Our team is playing good right now, so we're just looking forward to getting the season done and getting ready for next year -- because I think we're going to have a great team."

Marlon Anderson hit a three-run homer in the eighth inning to pull the Dodgers within four, stirring the fresh memory of a night earlier, when he hit the fourth consecutive homer for Los Angeles in the ninth as the Dodgers made up a four-run deficit, then beat San Diego on Nomar Garciaparra's two-run homer in the 10th.

The Dodgers went quietly in the ninth this time, as John Grabow set them down in order.

"We played great, and we've been doing that for a while," said Pittsburgh manager Jim Tracy, the Dodgers' manager for the five previous seasons. "We took some great at-bats in significant situations.

"When you're playing against a team like this one with what they have at stake, you know that they're going to keep coming at you. So you can't let up. And we didn't."

Bautista drove a 2-0 pitch from Elmer Dessens down the left-field line in the sixth inning for his second grand slam of the year and of his career. Bautista's 14th homer landed in the seats just beyond the 330-foot sign.

Left fielder Anderson tried to catch Bautista's drive, doing a somersault into the stands -- and the fans -- when he crashed into the low wall.

"From where I was, rounding first base, I thought he caught it," Bautista said. "But then I saw that he took a long time getting up, so I figured he didn't have it because he would have tried showing [the umpire] the ball.

"It was a big relief when he didn't come up with the ball. I guess that just shows you what kind of player he is -- going all out like that."

Bautista finished with five RBIs, including a run-scoring single in the second that tied it at 1. Xavier Nady hit his 17th home run leading off the fourth against Hong-Chih Kuo (1-5) to give Pittsburgh a 2-1 lead.

Snell (14-10) struck out seven and walked three.

The Dodgers scored twice in the seventh against Damaso Marte, trimming Pittsburgh's lead to 6-3. But the Pirates responded with four runs in the eighth against Brett Tomko, including Ronny Paulino's two-run single and an RBI double by pinch-hitter Ryan Doumit.

Dessens had replaced Kuo with one out and the bases loaded in the sixth. He struck out Paulino before Bautista came up.

Kuo, making his third start after spending two seasons in the bullpen, gave up five runs and six hits in 5 1/3 innings. He struck out eight and walked two.

Rafael Furcal hit Snell's first pitch of the game over the wall in right-center for his sixth leadoff homer of the year and 18th of his career.

Game notes
Pittsburgh LHP Paul Maholm, scheduled to pitch Thursday against the Dodgers, will be pushed back because of tenderness in his rotator cuff. Fellow rookie LHP Shane Youman will make his second major league start instead. ... Furcal became the third Los Angeles Dodger to hit as many as six leadoff homers in a single season. Davey Lopes had seven in 1979. He also hit six in 1980, and he and Todd Hollandsworth, who had six in 2000, are the only other L.A. Dodgers to hit as many as six.