The bats gave him some support and knocked Dodgers starter Chad Billingsley out of the game early, but it was not enough.

As resilient as the Indians were on another sun-soaked afternoon at Dodger Stadium, Byrd's early trauma got the best of them in a 4-3 loss that quashed their hopes of an Interleague sweep.

The Dodgers strung together four runs on four hits off Byrd before making their first out. Juan Pierre singled and Matt Kemp hit a ground-rule double to immediately put two runners in scoring position. James Loney brought them both home with a double down the right-field line, and Russell Martin capped the quick outburst with a two-run homer to left.

Just like that, it was 4-0, and there was little reason to believe Byrd would last more than a few innings in this one. But Byrd somehow locked in from that point, allowing just three more singles and not walking anybody over the remainder of his seven innings of gutty work.

The Indians attempted to bail Byrd out. They put up a three spot in the third, when Shin-Soo Choo brought a runner home from third on a fielder's choice, Ryan Garko cranked out an RBI single and Casey Blake chipped in with an RBI groundout.

But the Indians came up empty from that point on, and Byrd (3-8) paid for his first-inning foibles.