WASHINGTON, D.C. -- When the ground balls come in bunches, it's a good sign that Derek Lowe is on, fooling hitters with his sinker and giving his infielders a workout.

So, when Lowe started recording ground-ball outs on Saturday afternoon against the Washington Nationals -- 11 in all -- his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates breathed a sigh of relief because their right-hander was fulfilling the role of the known quantity in an interesting pitching matchup.

With Lowe frustrating the Nationals, the Dodgers had some extra time to figure out the unknown quantity, Washington right-hander Shawn Hill, making his first Major League start since 2004 and his first appearance since undergoing surgery on a ligament in his elbow. Once Hill had departed, the Dodgers struck quickly.

Leave it to Nomar Garciaparra to bail out Lowe, his old Boston teammate, with another clutch hit that quickly ended any thoughts of a losing streak after the Dodgers' seven-game binge was halted on Friday night at RFK Stadium.

Lowe carried a shutout into the seventh inning, Garciaparra's RBI single snapped an eighth-inning tie and the Dodgers beat the Nationals, 3-1.

Garciaparra's RBI single on the first pitch he saw from reliever Gary Majewski was hardly a surprise, considering how Garciaparra has flourished lately in late-inning situations. Over his last 14 games, Garciaparra is 12-for-14 from the seventh inning on, and Lowe remembers similar clutch contributions from their Boston days.

"He's an experienced hitter, it's as simple as that," Lowe explained. "He has the ability to calm himself down and let the talent come out."

Saturday's heroics came after Lowe and Hill had dueled to a 1-1 standoff after seven innings. Hill departed before the eighth, and the Dodgers immediately jumped on reliever Mike Stanton, who yielded singles to Rafael Furcal and Kenny Lofton. Majewski replaced Stanton (1-5), and Garciaparra shot his first pitch into left field, breaking the deadlock.

"The big thing was just the way we produced that run," Garciaparra said. "The real big spark was Furcal leading off that inning. Getting a guy on early put the pressure on."

Furcal had three hits for the Dodgers, who have won eight of nine games, 11 of 14 and 16 of 20. After scoring 55 runs during their seven-game winning streak, the Dodgers had to grind out runs against the Nationals, playing station-to-station little ball.

"We can't score that many runs for [Lowe]," Garciaparra said, "and it doesn't mean anything [because] he's going out there and giving us an opportunity to do what we did."

Lowe (3-3) won his second consecutive start, holding Washington to two singles over the first six innings. The right-hander allowed one run on five hits -- all singles -- while walking one and striking out three over seven innings.

Though the sinker was effective, it was hardly the only pitch Lowe was using to get outs.

"We kind of mixed in everything -- it wasn't a steady dose of anything -- to try and keep them off balance," Lowe said.

Dodgers manager Grady Little, who skippered the Red Sox when Lowe was pitching for them from 2002-03, quickly noticed similarities to the no-hitter Lowe threw against Tampa Bay on April 27, 2002.

"In the early part of that game today, in the third or fourth inning, I told [pitching coach Rick] Honeycutt sitting there that [Lowe] was very similar today as he was that day in Boston when he threw a no-hitter," Little said. "He has everything working for him right now."

Danys Baez pitched the eighth, and Takashi Saito worked the ninth for his second save.

Lowe's effectiveness and Garciaparra's timely hit aside, the Dodgers had precious little to show against Hill, who was recalled from Triple-A New Orleans to make Saturday's start. He allowed a run on five hits over seven innings, walked two and fanned three.

The Dodgers manufactured a run in the third to take the lead. Russell Martin was hit by an inside pitch and went to second on Lowe's sacrifice bunt. Furcal's single to left moved Russell to third, and Kenny Lofton's sacrifice fly to right scored him.

That lead held until the seventh, when Lowe wiggled out of a jam after allowing the Nationals to tie the game. Nick Johnson hit an infield single, went to third on Ryan Zimmerman's single to right and came home on Marlon Anderson's soft liner to center on an 0-2 pitch.

Lowe then picked Zimmerman off second and retired Damian Jackson on a foul bunt and Brian Schneider on a comebacker to the mound. The pickoff, after two pitches to Anderson, wound up being a backbreaker for the Nationals, who lost an opportunity to knot the score and get into the Los Angeles bullpen.

When Garciaparra drove in Furcal in the eighth, Little was left to ponder another clutch hit by his go-to hitter. When Little was asked how to explain Garciaparra's effectiveness in the late innings, he honestly said he couldn't.

"No, and I'm not going to try either," Little said. "I just want him to keep it up. He's doing a good job for us."

The Dodgers added an unearned insurance run with two out in the ninth when Damian Jackson threw offline to first on Olmedo Saenz's routine grounder to short, allowing Andre Ethier to score from third.

Dodgers second baseman Jeff Kent left the game in the third inning with a sprained left wrist. His status for Sunday's series finale won't be known until Sunday morning.