DODGERS BUCK LOSING WAYS SAENZ FEELS SEXY IN WIN DODGERS 12, PITTSBURGH 6.Byline: Tony Jackson
Anthony (Antonio) Jackson, best known as Tony Jackson Staff Writer PITTSBURGH - Olmedo Saenz says he has good days and bad days with the pain in his lower back, which isn't so much the result of a specific injury as it is of being two months shy of his 35th birthday and having played more in the first two-thirds of the season than he expected to all year. His body is creaky creak·y adj. creak·i·er, creak·i·est 1. Tending to creak. 2. Shaky or infirm, as with age; decrepit: creaky knee joints; a creaky regime. enough that not only doesn't he mind the sporadic playing time manager Jim Tracy
On Friday, in a game the Dodgers' desperately needed - a 12-6 pounding of the Pittsburgh Pirates This article is about the baseball team. For the National Hockey League team, see Pittsburgh Pirates (NHL). For the National Football League team (1933–1940), see Pittsburgh Steelers. in front of a Fireworks fireworks: see pyrotechnics. fireworks Explosives or combustibles used for display. Of ancient Chinese origin, fireworks evidently developed out of military rockets and explosive missiles and accompanied the spread of military explosives westward to Night sellout of 37,318 at PNC Park - Saenz suddenly felt like a kid again. His three hits included a three-run homer in the fourth inning that broke a 1-1 tie and put the Dodgers ahead to stay. It was his second game-winning homer in the Dodgers' past two games here (the other was a 14th-inning shot on May 9, 2004), and he capped his performance with a two-run double over the head of left fielder Jason Bay in the ninth. Saenz finished with a career-high six 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 for a career-high 46 this season. To an extent, Saenz's numbers are the product of all that extra playing time, which is the result of too many injuries to too many teammates. And Saenz's recurrent back pain is the other result of that playing time, which is why Tracy vowed at the All-Star break to be more conservative with him. Thus, Saenz has started just eight games in the second half. In those games, he is hitting a cool .313 (10 for 32). As the Dodgers opened a critical three-game series here, where they haven't lost since 2002, Saenz's back was, as he likes to say, feeling pretty sexy. ``I have been working on it since even before the All-Star break,'' Saenz said. ``It's just one of those things, and when it gets bad, it makes it especially tough to hit fastballs, because I can't turn on them. But I felt good today.'' The Dodgers also got six solid innings from starting pitcher Derek Lowe, who took the mound about 12 hours after several sordid details of his personal life were laid bare on national television when his estranged es·trange tr.v. es·tranged, es·trang·ing, es·trang·es 1. To make hostile, unsympathetic, or indifferent; alienate. 2. To remove from an accustomed place or set of associations. wife gave a candid interview to ``Good Morning America Good Morning America is a weekday morning news show that is broadcast on the ABC television network. The show was adapted from The Morning Exchange, a morning show created by and airing on the ABC affiliate in Cleveland, Ohio, and was launched nationally as .'' Lowe seemed to thrive on the dramatics dra·mat·ics n. (used with a sing. or pl. verb) 1. The art or practice of acting and stagecraft. 2. Dramatic or stagy behavior: Cut the dramatics and get to the point. , scattering five hits and making some big pitches to get out of jams before giving way to a pinch hitter with a 5-3 lead in the top of the seventh - a lead that by the end of the inning would be 10-3. The rally was built around a botched botch tr.v. botched, botch·ing, botch·es 1. To ruin through clumsiness. 2. To make or perform clumsily; bungle. 3. To repair or mend clumsily. n. 1. double-play grounder by rookie catcher Dioner Navarro that immediately followed Jose Valentin's leadoff single. Pirates shortstop and Thousand Oaks High grad Jack Wilson, one of the slickest glove men in the game, bobbled the ball and couldn't feed Jose Castillo quickly enough to get Valentin at second, and both runners were safe. Jason Repko, hitting for Lowe, then beat out a bunt single to load the bases. Singles by Cesar Izturis, Oscar Robles, Ricky Ledee and Saenz put the game out of reach. ``The big key was that groundball that was misplayed,'' Tracy said. ``Instead of two outs, nobody on and a pinch hitter up, we have first and second with nobody out. Repko did a terrific job with the bunt, and it turned into a five-run inning.'' The third-place Dodgers (49-60) remained five games behind division-leading San Diego in the National League West after the Padres rallied in the late innings to win at Washington. Tony Jackson,(818) 713-3675 tony.jackson(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): photo, 4 boxes Photo: Olmedo Saenz (8) rounds third after hitting a home run in the Dodgers 12-6 win over Pittsburgh. Saenz had a career-high six RBI. Gene J. Puskar/Associated Press Box: (1) DODGERS at PITTSBURGH - Tony Jackson (2) GAME RECAP (3) HOW THE RUNS SCORED (4) DODGERS 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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