DODGERS `BREAK' THROUGH EIGHT-GAME SKID COMES TO AN END DODGERS 6, SAN DIEGO 4.Byline: Tony Jackson
Anthony (Antonio) Jackson, best known as Tony Jackson Staff Writer SAN DIEGO San Diego (săn dēā`gō), city (1990 pop. 1,110,549), seat of San Diego co., S Calif., on San Diego Bay; inc. 1850. San Diego includes the unincorporated communities of La Jolla and Spring Valley. Coronado is across the bay. - Throughout their eight-game losing streak, the only thing in shorter supply than hits for the Dodgers were lucky breaks. Everything seemed to go against them, whether it was a bad call by an umpire, a scorching scorch v. scorched, scorch·ing, scorch·es v.tr. 1. To burn superficially so as to discolor or damage the texture of. See Synonyms at burn1. 2. liner that landed inches to the wrong side of the foul line foul line n. 1. Baseball Either of two straight lines extending from the rear of home plate to the outer edge of the playing field and indicating the area in which a fair ball can be hit. 2. or a drive up the gap that appeared headed for the wall until some outfielder raced out of nowhere to haul it in and break the Dodgers' hearts yet again. That all changed in the top of the sixth inning on Wednesday night, two batters after another blown call led to the ejection of Jeff Kent Jeffrey Franklin Kent (born March 7, 1968 in Bellflower, California) is a Major League Baseball player for the Los Angeles Dodgers and a former MVP winner. Early career , the Dodgers finally got a fortunate bounce. It would become the pivotal moment in the Dodgers' first win in 10 days, a cathartic cathartic (kəthär`tĭk): see laxative. , 6-4 victory over the San Diego Padres before 35,988 at Petco Park. With the bases loaded and none out in a tie game, the much-maligned Jason Grabowski Jason Grabowski (born May 24, 1976 in New Haven, Connecticut) is a Major League Baseball player. In the 2005 offseason, his contract was sold to the Orix Buffaloes of Japan's Pacific League. hit a sharp grounder toward Padres second baseman Damian Jackson, who got into position to start an inning-ending double play and snuff out another would-be Dodgers rally. The ball appeared to take a strange hop just before it got to Jackson, then caromed off his glove. Proving that even the Dodgers' lucky breaks are unlucky, the ball bounced in the general direction of shortstop Khalil Greene, who lunged for it while keeping one foot on the second-base bag to force Jason Phillips. The Padres had no shot to get Grabowski at first however, nor could they do anything about Olmedo Saenz coming home from third to give the Dodgers a 4-3 lead. With that, the Dodgers had the rarest of commodities, a lead in the late innings, and unlike just about every other opportunity that has presented itself in recent weeks, they didn't blow this one. The run came just in time to make a winner of rookie D.J. Houlton after a five-inning start in which he alternated between shaky and splendid. From there, the Dodgers bullpen took over, and the Padres weren't able to extend the Dodgers' misery. The third-place Dodgers (34-37) pulled back to within 5 1/2 games of the division-leading Padres in the National League West, with four more games against them in the next seven days. At the start, Houlton (3-1) gave no impression he would be the guy to stop the losing streak. One batter in, he already had put the Dodgers in a 1-0 hole by giving up a home run to former Dodgers center fielder Dave Roberts that landed in the weird, triangular seating contrivance that juts into fair territory just beyond Petco's right-field foul pole. Four batters in, it was 2-0, and Houlton still hadn't retired a batter. From there the right-hander settled down and pitched a solid second inning before running into more trouble in the third. After getting out of a second jam he settled in for the long haul, retiring the final seven batters he faced before leaving for a pinch hitter one batter after Grabowski's game-winning, fielder's choice grounder. Padres right-hander Tim Stauffer (1-3) looked more the part of a rookie making his eighth major-league start than a ballyhooed pitching prospect drafted with the fourth overall pick just two years ago out of the University of Richmond. Handed a 2-0 lead in the first, Stauffer immediately blew it in the second, giving up consecutive singles to Kent and Olmedo Saenz to begin the inning and a one-out, two-run double to Jason Phillips. The Padres took a 3-2 lead in the third on Brian Giles' RBI RBI abbr. Baseball runs batted in Noun 1. rbi - a run that is the result of the batter's performance; "he had more than 100 rbi last season" run batted in double, and the Dodgers tied it in the sixth on Jayson Werth's home run to lead off the inning - the first homer by a Dodger since Kent's blast in the first inning on Saturday against the Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are a professional baseball team based in Chicago, Illinois. The White Sox are a member of the Central Division of Major League Baseball's American League. From to the present, the White Sox have played in U.S. . Tony Jackson, (818) 713-3675 tony.jackson(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): 2 photos, 4 boxes Photo: (1 -- color) Dodgers manager Jim Tracy (16) argues with third-base umpire Dan Iassogna after Jeff Kent was ejected. (2) Cesar Izturis can't come up with Brian Giles' bloop bloop Baseball n. A blooper. tr.v. blooped, bloop·ing, bloops To hit (a ball) into the air just beyond the infield. adj. Hit just beyond the infield. single Wednesday. Lenny Ignelzi/Associated Press Box: (1) DODGERS at SAN DIEGO - Tony Jackson (2) GAME RECAP (3) HOW THE RUNS SCORED (4) ALMANAC almanac, originally, a calendar with notations of astronomical and other data. Almanacs have been known in simple form almost since the invention of writing, for they served to record religious feasts, seasonal changes, and the like. |
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