GREEN CONTINUES ROLL WITH 2 BLASTS HOMERS RESCUE A SHAKY WEAVER DODGERS 7, ATLANTA 4.Byline: Tony Jackson
Anthony (Antonio) Jackson, best known as Tony Jackson Staff Writer Shawn Green Shawn David Green (born November 10, 1972, in Des Plaines, Illinois) is a 6' 4" left-handed Major League Baseball player. Green is the starting right fielder for the New York Mets.[1] Green was a 1st round draft pick, and has been a two-time major league All-Star. always believed his miserable first half was an aberration. Now, he has made everybody else believe it, too. The veteran first baseman continued his late-season resurgence on Saturday with two home runs, one of them a grand slam grand slam n. 1. The winning of all the tricks during the play of one hand in bridge and other whist-derived card games. 2. Sports The winning of all the major or specified events, especially on a professional circuit. , and the Dodgers struck another blow in a four-game showdown between possible first-round playoff opponents, holding on for a 7-4 victory over the Atlanta Braves The Atlanta Braves are a professional baseball team based in Atlanta, Georgia. The Braves are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball's National League. From to the present, the Braves have played in Turner Field. in front of 52,398 at Dodger Stadium • • [ . Green drove a 2-1 pitch from Mike Hampton Michael William Hampton (born September 9, 1972 in Brooksville, Florida, U.S.) is a Major League Baseball starting pitcher who plays for the Atlanta Braves. He bats right-handed and throws left-handed. Hampton is well-known for being one of the best active hitting pitchers. into the second row of the right-field pavilion in the first inning. It was Green's eighth career grand slam and gave the Dodgers a quick, 4-0 lead after a hairy top of the first in which Jeff Weaver This article is about Major League Baseball player Jeffrey Weaver. For other people named Jeff Weaver, see Jeff Weaver (disambiguation). Jeffrey Charles Weaver tied a major-league record by hitting three consecutive batters but escaped without allowing a run. Two innings later, at a time when the Braves had sliced the lead in half on a two-run homer by J.D. Drew and Hampton appeared to be settling into a groove, Green struck again, smacking smack·ing adj. Brisk; vigorous; spanking: a smacking breeze. Noun 1. smacking - the act of smacking something; a blow delivered with an open hand slap, smack a 3-2 pitch from Hampton just over the wall in left-center. Green now has homered five times in the Dodgers' past four games, going 6 for 11 with eight 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 over that stretch. He has raised his overall average from .253 at the break to .266. More dramatically, he has erased any memory of the season's first half, when he at times looked utterly lost at the plate and could almost always be counted on in clutch situations to strike out or ground into a double play. Green actually erased those memories from his own mind some time ago. ``There isn't anything I can do about it,'' Green said. ``If I can finish up strong and help this team not only reach the playoffs, but do well once we get there, it will have been a successful season for me. That's the way I look at it, and if things go well in that regard, it could end up being the best year of my career.'' On paper, at least, Green's resurrection seems to coincide exactly with the All-Star break. He hit an eighth-inning grand slam in the Dodgers' second-half opener at Arizona to turn an offensively-stagnant night against Randy Johnson
Randall David Johnson (born September 10, 1963), nicknamed "the Big Unit into a dramatic, 4-3 victory. Four nights later, he hit another game-winning, eighth-inning shot off Houston's Dan Miceli in a pivotal moment on what for the Dodgers became a 6-0 road trip to start the second half. From there, Green rebuilt his season in much the same way the Dodgers (72-50) built what is now a 5 1/2-game lead in the National League West: incrementally, quietly, slowly, until one day his statistics seemed to suggest that he wasn't having such a lackluster year after all. Since the break, Green is hitting .295, with 12 homers and 31 RBI. ``I think the biggest difference you're seeing from earlier in the season is some of the pitches he's getting to now that earlier in the season he was fouling off,'' Dodgers manager Jim Tracy said. ``He wasn't swinging and missing, but he was just missing to the point that he would hit a fly ball to the outfield. That's not happening anymore. Now, when he gets a pitch he likes, he pulverizes it. But to see one specific game or two when he started to turn it around, I don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. if that's the case.'' Green, as he has been known to do on occasion, disagrees with Tracy on that issue. He also disagrees with the notion that his comeback started after the break. ``I think I started to feel better against the Giants (on July 1), when I hit an opposite-field home run against (Jason) Schmidt,'' said Green, who later won that game with an eighth-inning, RBI double off Felix Rodriguez. ``It was just the way I reacted to pitches. As a hitter, that's what you really look for. When you're jumping at the ball and you're late all the time, you're not reacting right. The key is getting to where you don't have to think up there.'' Tony Jackson,(818) 713-3675 tony.jackson(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): photo, box Photo: (color) The Dodgers' Shawn Green watches his grand slam in the first inning head for the right-field pavilion seats on Saturday. Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer Box: GAME RECAP |
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