Astros 8, Dodgers 5

Anyone who couldn't sniff out that the Dodgers were going to blow this one hasn't been watching this team lately -- or, more specifically, since Rafael Furcal has been out. The boys had numerous opportunities to build on their 2-0 and later 3-1 lead. They went 1 for 9 w/RISP. Kuroda flirted with a no-hitter until Hunter Pence pulled one through the left side with two outs in the seventh, and after Kuroda subsequently walked Ty Wigginton and missed with his first pitch to Geoff Blum, Torre pulled him. Beimel then walked the next two to force in a run, and although the Dodgers pushed their lead back to two with an unearned run off former Dodgers pitching prospect Wesley Wright in their half, Jonathan Broxton got lit up -- I mean LIT UP -- in the eighth, giving up six runs on six hits and recording just one out. ... There just doesn't seem to be any in-between with this team. They're either really hot or really not, and they have now lost four in a row. They head to Milwaukee 19-18 and still 3 1/2 behind the Snakes.