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Return of Rafael Furcal to Dodgers hardly goes as planned in 3-0 loss to Cubs

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Welcome back, Raffy!

Oh, not such a great welcome. Not picking up where you left off.

Last time we saw Rafael Furcal, back on April 27, he was tearing it up. Hitting .309, stealing bases, scoring runs -- looking just like the leadoff guy the Dodgers had hoped for. And playing great defense.

He came back Tuesday from his strained hamstring and looked a lot like a guy who could have used more than a couple of rehab appearances in the Dodgers 3-0 loss to the Cubs.

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Furcal went 0 for 4, which was almost the good news. On the field, the one place it was just assumed he could return without missing a beat, he made a pair of errors.

The first was costly, breaking up a scoreless tie in the bottom of the sixth, when he booted a Ryan Theriot grounder. Theriot stole second and scored on a Derrek Lee single.

The unearned run was all Clayton Kershaw would allow in his six innings (four hits, two walks, four strikeouts).

The Cubs scored twice more in the eighth, thanks partially to another Furcal error and the continued meltdown of reliever Ramon Troncoso.

This time Furcal was guilty of a throwing error on a Starlin Castro bouncer. Lee then hit a two-run homer off Troncoso. He allowed two home runs in his previous outing.

Troncoso started the season well but has had a series of poor outings recently. An ERA that was at 3.21 on May 1 has now swollen to 5.24.

-- Steve Dilbeck

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