By ALAN ROBINSON
AP Sports Writer

PITTSBURGH(AP) -- If the Los Angeles Dodgers are going to defeat
the good teams in October, they might want to start beating the
bad teams in September.

Brandon Moss' two-run single gave Pittsburgh an early lead and
the Pirates, stuck in their worst slump since 1984, used five
pitchers to beat Los Angeles 3-1 on Friday night, stalling the
Dodgers' drive to the playoffs.

The Dodgers, who own the NL's best record at 92-62, could have
secured at least a wild-card playoff spot with a win or a Braves
loss, but Atlanta beat Washington 4-1.

The Dodgers' magic number for repeating as the NL West champion
remained at four, partly because they are 2-2 this week against
the majors' two worst clubs, the Nationals and Pirates. Colorado
moved within five games in the NL West, beating St. Louis 2-1 on
Friday.

"It's not going to happen every night," Dodgers second baseman
Orlando Hudson said. "We know we've got a good ballclub, we can
pitch, hit, play defense. But we're not going to be perfect.
Just because they're so many back, that doesn't mean they're
going to roll over and let us pound on them."

Los Angeles had won 11 of 15 and the Pirates had lost nine of
10, but two costly infield errors by the Dodgers led to all of
Pittsburgh's scoring. Despite winning, the Pirates have lost 23
of 27 during their worst slide since they dropped 24 of 28 from
July 13-Aug. 15, 1985 and are five losses away from 100.

Right-hander Jon Garland (11-12) lost for the first time with
Los Angeles, giving up three runs and six hits in six innings.
Garland was 3-0 with a 2.33 ERA in his first four starts with
Los Angeles, beating the Pirates 6-2 on Sept. 14.

"These are the tough games to get up for at the end of the
season, when you're playing a team that's not going anywhere,"
Garland said. "The crowd's definitely not going to get you
going. These are definitely games you need to dig deep. It's
easy to get up for the games when somebody's trying to track you
down or there are 43,000 in the stands going crazy."

With right-hander Ross Ohlendorf shut down because he has
pitched 176 2-3 innings, Pirates manager John Russell used five
pitchers from his bullpen to beat the Dodgers in Pittsburgh for
only the eighth time in 31 games since PNC Park opened in 2001.

It was almost like a manager handles his pitching staff during
spring training.

"You know what, that's what it felt like. It worked out well,"
said Matt Capps, who pitched the ninth for his 26th save.

Jeff Karstens, making his first start since June 5, gave up
Hudson's RBI double in the second while pitching three innings,
but the four relievers who followed pitched six scoreless
innings.

Donnie Veal (1-0), a December draft pick who has rarely been
used in close games this season, pitched the fourth and fifth
innings for his first career victory. Steven Jackson pitched the
sixth and Jesse Chavez the seventh and eighth.

"It was exciting - real exciting," Veal said of finally winning.

After third baseman Blake DeWitt's two-base throwing error on
Andy LaRoche's grounder led to Garrett Jones' sacrifice fly in
the Pirates' first, LaRoche and Jones singled with one out in
the third. First baseman James Loney then misplayed Ryan
Doumit's hard-hit grounder for an error that loaded the bases.
Moss followed a batter later by flaring a two-run single into
left.

"It certainly something that's unexpected," manager Joe Torre
said of the defensive mistakes. "You certainly can't expect good
things to happen when you don't catch the ball. You give the
opposition extra outs and anything's likely to happen."

Even a loss to the Pirates, who were swept in a three-game
series in Los Angeles last week.

NOTES: Dodgers 3B Casey Blake (hamstring) didn't start for the
third straight day, so DeWitt made his sixth start of the
season. ... 3B Pedro Alvarez, who had 27 homers and 95 RBIs at
Double-A Altoona and Class A Lynchburg, is the Pirates' minor
league player of the year. ... The Dodgers had a long night of
travel following their 7-6 victory over the Nationals on
Thursday. Because of the G-20 summit that ended Friday in
Pittsburgh, they went through a lengthy, detailed security check
before leaving Washington.