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Angels toss no-no, but lose 1-0 to Dodgers

Effort won't go into books because Angels' pitchers only threw 8 innings

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Chris Carlson / AP
Angels starting pitcher Jered Weaver threw six innings of no-hit ball against the Dodgers on Saturday.
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updated 2:52 a.m. ET June 29, 2008

LOS ANGELES - No hits, one run — and a win for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

After watching his team beat the Angels 1-0 without getting a hit Saturday night, manager Joe Torre couldn’t recall a stranger game in his managerial career.

“That’s about as bizarre as you can get,” Torre said.

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Jered Weaver threw six no-hit innings and Jose Arredondo held the Dodgers hitless in the seventh and eighth. It still wasn’t enough.

“Any loss, no matter what, is tough,” Weaver said. “I’m sure you guys are going to eat this up a lot more than I am. I don’t call it a no-hitter for me. I only went six innings.”

The Dodgers became the fifth team in modern major league history to win without getting a hit. Because they didn’t have to bat in the ninth, the game doesn’t qualify as a no-hitter.

“That’s certainly a weird linescore,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. “But it’s a 1-0 loss, that’s the way we look at it.”

The closest the Dodgers came to a hit was Matt Kemp’s slow roller on the first-base side of the mound in the fifth inning. Weaver’s fielding error on the play led to the game’s only run, which was unearned.

It was only the fifth game in the majors since 1900 when the winning team didn’t get a hit, and first since Boston’s Matt Young in 1992, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

Angels outfielder Torii Hunter shook his head and said he hadn't seen anything like it. “Never, not even in Little League,” he said.

With the Angels trailing in the interleague game at Dodger Stadium, Weaver was pulled for a pinch-hitter in the seventh after throwing 97 pitches.

The Dodgers’ Chad Billingsley (7-7) scattered three hits over seven innings, then Jonathan Broxton and Takashi Saito shut out the Angels for the next two innings. Blanked for the second game in a row, the Angels finished with five hits, but never got a runner as far as third.

In the fifth, Weaver (7-8) charged to his right to field Kemp’s spinning squibber, but bobbled it. The ruling on whether it was a hit or an error seemed to be a close one, since Weaver would have had to field the ball cleanly — and first baseman Casey Kotchman was off the bag. Official scorer Don Hartack ruled it an error.

“I believe if he just picked it up with his bare hand and flipped it, he gets him by a good step and a half,” Hartack said. “So my thinking was, it really wasn’t a bang-bang play. I looked at the replay once and it looked like Kemp was a good seven steps away, so my thinking was Weaver had plenty of time to make the out.”

Kemp completely agreed with the scoring.

“I hit it off the end of the bat and it had a little funky English on it,” he said. “He could have made the play, but he just dropped the ball. It was an error. I mean, if they’d have given me a hit, I’d have been happy. But it was an error by far.”

Kemp stole second and continued to third on catcher Jeff Mathis’ throwing error, then scored on Blake DeWitt’s sacrifice fly.

“To come out of a game like that with no hits, it was pretty bizarre,” DeWitt said. “But it’s a great win. No win’s embarrassing.”

Weaver struck out six, walked three and hit a batter. Chone Figgins pinch-hit for him in the seventh with two outs and a runner on second, but grounded out.

Baseball’s other no-hit losers were Andy Hawkins of the Yankees in 1990, Steve Barber and Stu Miller of Baltimore in 1967, and Ken Johnson of Houston in 1964.

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  No hits? No problem for Dodgers
June 29: Los Angeles' Russell Martin talks about the Dodgers' crazy 1-0 win in which they didn't have a single hit against the Angels.

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The Angels had runners at first and second against Saito with two outs in the ninth, but he struck out pinch-hitter Reggie Willits to earn his 12th save.

Notes: Dodgers bullpen coach Ken Howell missed his second game because of a foot infection. Jim Slaton, the pitching coach for Triple-A Las Vegas, is filling in for Howell and will accompany the team on the next road trip as well. ... Guerrero’s hitting streak for the Angels ended at 16. ... Dodgers RHP Brad Penny threw another bullpen session. He’s scheduled to face hitters in his next one, possible Tuesday or Wednesday. ... Angels infielder Maicer Izturis started at 3B for the third time this season after missing four games with tightness in his right hamstring. ... Dodgers RHP Hiroki Kuroda threw 45 pitches in a simulated game. If he comes out of it with no aftereffects, he will rejoin the rotation to pitch Wednesday night at Houston.

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