Ashby, Brown Can’t Deliver

HOUSTON —  The euphoria of a new labor agreement and the knowledge that the plug wouldn’t be pulled from the Dodgers’ promising season quickly gave way to the frustration of an 8-4 loss to the Houston Astros on Friday night.

A crowd of 30,046 in Minute Maid Park watched the Astros rock Dodger starter Andy Ashby for five runs in three innings and rough up reliever Kevin Brown for three runs--two of them on homers--in three innings, as Houston pulled within five games of the Dodgers in the National League wild-card race.

Right-hander Wade Miller (12-3) faced the minimum 18 batters in the first six innings before giving up four runs in the seventh--three on Adrian Beltre’s homer to left--but three Astro relievers shut down the Dodgers over the final 2 2/3 innings, and the surging Astros improved to 31-17 since the All-Star break.

The pitching tandems of Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling, Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine, Pedro Martinez and Derek Lowe, receive more publicity, but Houston’s duo of Miller and Roy Oswalt are 59-20 since the beginning of 2001, second only to Schilling and Johnson (83-20).

“We dug a hole for ourselves early in the game that was too deep to get out of,” Dodger Manager Jim Tracy said. “ ... The Astros have rectified themselves since the first half, and they’re going to be a force down the stretch.”

Though Ashby (9-10) considered Friday “a positive; the main thing is we’re playing baseball and we have a [labor agreement],” he couldn’t feel good about his performance.

The right-hander had gone 2-1 with a 1.76 earned-run average in his previous six starts, but he collapsed during a four-run third, in which he gave up an RBI single to Lance Berkman, a sacrifice fly to Daryle Ward and a two-run triple to Orlando Merced.

“I didn’t give us a chance to win--I didn’t do my job,” Ashby said. “Basically, I couldn’t throw a strike. I was behind in the count all the time, and when you get behind, you have to nibble. It’s not easy to pitch that way, especially here, against a good lineup.”

Craig Biggio homered off Brown in the fifth before the Dodgers rallied for four runs in the seventh to trim the lead to 6-4. But Jose Vizcaino homered off Brown to open the bottom of the seventh, and Merced added a sacrifice fly to extend Houston’s lead to 8-4.

The Dodgers awoke Friday morning still not knowing whether they’d be going on strike or to Minute Maid Park, but when catcher Paul Lo Duca, the team’s union representative, called to inform teammates of the labor agreement, a collective sigh of relief filtered through their hotel.

“I can finally exhale, for myself, for this team, and for the fans,” Dodger center fielder Dave Roberts said. “We’ve been trying to focus on baseball and not the labor situation, but I was wondering if [Wednesday’s game] was going to be our last of the season.... I’m a fan, too, and I didn’t want the game to be tainted in any way.”

The Dodgers haven’t reached the playoffs since 1996 and haven’t won a postseason game since 1988, and Tracy acknowledged he would have been “devastated” had there been a strike.

“I would have been hurt for the game, for this team, and for the fans,” Tracy said. “How would you bring closure to an uncertainty? It’s hard to do. It’s easy to say you would have done this or that [had there not been a strike], but that’s just an opinion.”

Added Lo Duca: “With the position we’re in, no one wants to see the season end. We got a deal done. I don’t want to get into who’s happy, who’s not happy, I’m just glad we’re going to finish the season, we’re going to be playing on Sept. 11, and for all the kids who are going to get called up [Sunday]. It’s a great feeling for them.”

As the team’s player representative, Lo Duca has participated in daily conference calls for the last week and has been the focus of intense media grilling as Friday’s strike deadline neared.

Though he claimed his union responsibilities weren’t a burden, Lo Duca acknowledged “it’s just great to get this off the table and get the focus back onto the field.” After hitting .326 in the first half, Lo Duca is batting .206 since the All-Star break.

“He’s a blue-collar gamer, and he’s had a lot on his plate--maybe an excess--but he’s never used that as an excuse,” Tracy said. “Offensively, he hasn’t been where he likes to be, but when he goes behind the plate, no one on that pitcher’s mound has suffered. That’s when it would have become an issue for me.”