DODGERS ARE GROUNDED HOME TURF WORKS FOR TWINS IN VICTORY OVER L.A. MINNESOTA 9, DODGERS 2.

Byline: TONY JACKSON Staff Writer

MINNEAPOLIS -- Even as he was announcing the acquisition of left-hander Mark Hendrickson from Tampa Bay, Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti said the search for additional pitching would continue.

Three hours later, Derek Lowe took the mound and offered an example of why Colletti still can't afford to rest.

The sinkerballing right-hander mostly did what he does best, which is get groundballs. But the plastic, faux grass -- allegedly an improvement over the old Astroturf -- mostly did what it does best, which is help those balls skip through the infield with stunning quickness.

The result for Lowe was another ugly indoor pitching line. The result for the Dodgers was another ugly interleague road loss to the Minnesota Twins, 9-2, in front of 30,681 on Tuesday night at the Metrodome.

Lowe left the game after a comebacker by Michael Cuddyer grazed him on the left wrist and part of his right foot. He was fine and should have no problem making his next scheduled start, either Monday or Tuesday against Arizona.

Fortunately for Lowe, that one will come on the green, green grass of home at Dodger Stadium. For his career, he fell to 6-13 with a 6.34ERA on the fake stuff.

``I really don't know that I could have pitched that badly if I had told them what was coming,'' said Lowe, who was torched for nine earned runs on 12 hits before Cuddyer literally knocked him out of the game with one out in the sixth.

``It was just a constant struggle the whole game. For me, it's demoralizing because of the way ... I thought I had turned it around since my first start of the season and had started to get on something of a roll.''

The only thing rolling for Lowe in this one was all those groundballs, most of which skidded past his infielders before they had time to react. Logic would suggest that artificial turf, which now exists in only three major-league parks and not at all in the National League, puts a sinkerball pitcher at an extreme disadvantage.

``This turf was very fast,'' Dodgers shortstop Rafael Furcal said. ``You can't get a good jump on ground balls toward the middle. Even if it looks like a slow roller, it seems like you almost get there and the ball takes off on you. (Lowe) pitched great, but they just found a lot of holes. I think the turf helped a lot of those ground balls.''

For his part, Lowe was having none of it.

``I don't really buy that,'' he said. ``I just pitched extremely poor to a hot team, and the result was about as bad as you can get.''

It was even worse for the Dodgers, who entered the day with a half-game lead in the NL West and now have lost 14 consecutive road interleague games since taking two of three from the Angels in July 2004.

It gets no easier. After being stymied for seven innings by rookie sensation Francisco Liriano (8-1), the Dodgers will face two-time defending American League strikeout champ Johan Santana in today's series finale.

They will counter with Odalis Perez, letting him out of the proverbial doghouse long enough to make a single spot start in place of the injured Brett Tomko.

Twins catcher Joe Mauer went 5for5 -- including 4 for 4 against Lowe -- to raise his AL-leading average to .389. In the first two games of the series, he is 9 for 10 with six RBIs.

Dodgers first baseman Nomar Garciaparra went 1 for 4 with a solo homer, his 10th of the season, to run his hitting streak to 11 games and his NL-best average to .362.

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Photo:

Minnesota's Joe Mauer hits a single in the eighth inning against the Dodgers. The Twins' catcher went 5 for 5 in Minnesota's victory.

Jim Mone/Associated Press

Box:

DODGERS at MINNESOTA

- Tony Jackson