Costly call sends slumping Dodgers to 4-1 loss

PITTSBURGH – Don Mattingly saw a trap. So did Juan Uribe.

Unfortunately for the slumping Los Angeles Dodgers, third base umpire Mike DiMuro saw an out, and Mattingly and Uribe soon saw the door.

DiMuro ruled Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Jose Tabata snagged Uribe's sinking line drive in the eighth inning of a tie game on Monday, and when Uribe and his manager argued they found themselves watching the rest of an eventual 4-1 loss from the clubhouse.

"From our dugout, the guys saw it bounce and that was it," Mattingly said. "At that point, you want to get the call right."

Tabata's acting job helped him double up Matt Kemp off first, and after Uribe and Mattingly lost their cool, the Dodgers lost for the seventh time in nine games.

"Well, we would have had first and third, so yeah, it was a turning point," Mattingly said. "I just don't know how you don't call for help. That's my only problem with it."

DiMuro said from his viewpoint it appeared Tobata's glove slid under the ball.

"At the very end he asked if I was 100 percent sure," DiMuro said. "I told Don, 'Who's 100 percent sure of anything in life?' I got one look, I was the closest umpire, it was my call, catch or no catch. I did not see it bounce. I look for the ball to change direction, didn't see it at all. That's why I made the call."

You won't hear Tabata complaining.

"In the moment, 'Hey, I got it,'" Tabata said.

The short delay while Mattingly and Uribe pleaded their cases seemed to spark the surging Pirates.

"That was a momentum shift for us, and it picked our guys up a little bit," Pittsburgh manager Clint Hurdle said. "In the end, you still have to get some hits, and we got them."

Garrett Jones led off the eighth with a walk before Walker laced a shot into the right-field corner off Los Angeles starter Chad Billingsley (2-2). Pinch-runner Xavier Paul scored all the way from first to give the Pirates a 2-1 lead.

Lyle Overbay and Ryan Doumit followed with a pair of run-scoring doubles to make a winner out of Jose Veras (1-1). Joel Hanrahan worked his way out of a little trouble in the ninth to pick up his 11th save.

Billingsley entered the game 4-0 against Pittsburgh and pitched well — allowing three runs on seven hits in seven-plus innings — but got little help from an offense that has struggled this season.

The Dodgers had 10 hits but just one extra-base hit, a double by Billingsley in the second. They left 10 runners on base and were doubled up twice off first after flyballs to the outfield.

"We made some great defensive plays," said Walker, who served as the cutoff man on both plays.

And some timely offensive ones, too.

Jones led off with a walk and Walker followed with his double and the Pirates didn't let up. Overbay and Doumit — whose three-run homer in the eighth against the Astros on Sunday brought the team back to .500 — smacked a pair of big hits to give Pittsburgh all the breathing room it would need.

"We're not hitting but we're getting timely hitting," Overbay said. "I would like to see us do it with more consistency."

Doumit went 3 for 4 while Jones added two hits for the Pirates.

Pittsburgh starter Jeff Karstens allowed one run in 5 2-3 innings, striking out two and walking two. He ran into trouble in the sixth after putting two on with a walk and a single.

Mike Crotta relieved and needed just one pitch to get Jerry Sands to hit a harmless grounder to second. He needed to be rescued an inning later after consecutive singles by Billingsley and Jamey Carroll with one out.

Joe Beimel, a former Dodger, retired Aaron Miles on a fielders' choice then got Andre Ethier to fly out to center.

The victory boosted the Pirates to 18-17, the first time they've had a winning record this late in the season since 2004.

Hurdle has done his best to downplay his team's modest start, calling the .500 mark just another milepost on getting the Pirates where they want to go.

Overbay agreed. It's still May. The season has yet to be defined.

"We've got a long ways to go," Overbay said. "I don't think we're where we need to be anyway. We haven't hit nearly as good as we should."

NOTES: Jones appeared to have his seventh home run of the season when he drilled a Billingsley pitch toward the right-field stands. The ball, however, dropped back onto the field when a fan botched the catch. Jones held up at second after umpire Jim Reynolds ruled spectator interference. The play was held up on further review. ... Uribe snapped out of an 0-for-15 slump with an RBI single in the first.