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Sampson, Astros blank Dodgers

May 11, 2008 - 6:21 AM LOS ANGELES (Ticker) -- While the Houston Astros are following the lead of Lance Berkman, the Los Angeles Dodgers continue to look lost without their offensive catalyst, Rafael Furcal.

Berkman turned in his seventh consecutive multi-hit game and Chris Sampson tossed seven strong innings Saturday, propelling the Astros to a 5-0 win over the Dodgers.

Berkman continued his torrid hitting, going 2-for-3 to raise his batting average to .386 for the season. Over his last seven games, the four-time All-Star is batting .741 (20-for-27).

"(Berkman) is batting like .700; he's been hitting the ball very well," Dodgers starter Chad Billingsley said. "He seems to always put the ball in play."

Meanwhile, Furcal has missed his team's last four games with a stiff back, and without him in the lineup, Los Angeles has scored a total of seven runs - including just two in the last three games. The Dodgers' leadoff hitter, who ranks right behind Berkman in the National League with a .366 batting average, is day-to-day.

"(Furcal) will get a day off tomorrow, he needs one," Dodgers manager Joe Torre said. "We have to make sure we have to attend to the things we need to with him."

Sampson (2-3) turned in his best start of the season, allowing three runs and a walk with three strikeouts for the Astros, who improved to 7-1 in May.

"(Sampson) was really efficient, particularly early," Astros manager Cecil Cooper said. "He kept the ball down in the strike zone, mixed in his pitches in and out. He came out, made pitches and didn't get rattled. I was very happy with that from him, he finished off strong in the seventh inning. That's the guy we're looking for."

"(I) finally got the ball back down in the zone, the sinker was working and I was getting a lot of ground balls going," Sampson said. "I live for contact, my gameplan is to get groundballs and it's a good indication that my stuff is working. We still have a lot of work to do, now I have to build on this."

The Astros mounted all the offense they needed over the first two innings, getting a run-scoring sacrifice fly from Carlos Lee before Darin Erstad hit a two-run double to center to cap the three-run first.

Miguel Tejada added a two-run single to right off Billingsley (2-5) in the second. The Dodgers' righthander permitted five runs and six hits with two walks and four strikeouts over five innings to snap his personal two-game winning streak.

"The first two innings I was getting ahead of hitters but couldn't put them away; they were finding holes," Billingsley said. "They have some good hitters, they hit the ball well. My command was there (but) it was just executing pitches, I just left the ball up in the zone. Today, I wasn't striking them out, I was pitching to contact and they were just finding holes."

Sampson controlled the Dodgers' bats from that point on, facing the minimum in all but one of his final four frames before yielding to reliever Wesley Wright to begin the eighth.