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Furcal's absence more painful

Like the paparazzi catching some starlet as she roams the Hollywood shopping meccas in baggy sweats and no makeup, two different teams have caught the Dodgers without Rafael Furcal this week.

The result has been a picture that is anything but glamorous, and a possible glimpse into the club's future that is nothing short of scary.

While Furcal missed his third consecutive game with lower-back tightness, the Dodgers flailed their way to their first two-game losing streak in almost three weeks, falling 7-1 to the surging Houston Astros in front of 52,658 on Friday night at Dodger Stadium.

With their offensive heart and soul still sidelined, the Dodgers went hitless in nine at-bats with runners in scoring position, failing to hit the ball out of the infield in eight of them. They have scored two runs in their past 21 innings, both of them coming at ninth-inning garbage time when they trailed the New York Mets by a dozen runs on Wednesday and the Astros by seven in this one   Read Full Article...