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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
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GAME LOG
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LOS ANGELES (AP) – Dodger Stadium is not Coors Field, and Mark Grudzielanek is not Mark McGwire. So why has the
Dodgers second baseman already hit four home runs in three nights at Chavez
Ravine?
"I don't know. He's going to be batting fourth soon," said Shawn Green, who led a five-homer
barrage with his first two of the season Saturday night as Los Angeles
routed the San Francisco Giants 10-4. "He's swinging great now. The home
runs he's hitting are line drives, and right now he's really locked in."
Chan Ho Park (2-0) shrugged off a
two-run homer by Russ Davis in
the second inning as his teammates homered five times for the second
straight night after bombing the Giants and Shawn Estes 10-1 Friday night.
Green and Eric Karros gave Los
Angeles back-to-back homers for the third consecutive game. Green hit his
first two of the season and Chris
Donnels had the fifth one. It was the first time the Dodgers have had
consecutive five-homer games since June 29-30, 1996, at Denver, when they
hit six in each game.
"I don't think too much should be made of these last
two games – just as nothing should be made of the first two games we had
against the Diamondbacks, when everybody was talking about how bad we were
going to be offensively," Karros said. "It's baseball. It's a 162-game
season, and you're going to have your peaks and valleys. You just hope you
have more peaks than valleys. Hopefully we can run this thing as long as
possible."
All five homers came off Livan Hernandez (1-1), who earned
World Series MVP honors in 1997 with Florida. The right-hander was charged
with eight runs and seven hits in 3 1/3 innings. Grudzielanek – who has
never hit more than eight home runs in any of his previous seven big-league
seasons – tied a career high with four RBI. He is the first Dodger to homer
in three straight contests since July 13-15 of last season, when Gary Sheffield did it in Anaheim.
"It's sort of bewildering to me," Giants manager Dusty Baker said. "I've
never seen him hit that many home runs in a short period of time, but I've
never seen almost anybody hitting them like that off us. We usually don't
give 'em up like this."
Park pitched five innings in chilly weather,
allowing four runs, five hits and four walks. Davis' homer ended the
right-hander's scoreless streak at 33 innings, including the seven he worked
on Opening Day. Green barely cleared the fence in right-center in the second
inning for his first homer, and Karros barely cleared the outstretched glove
of Barry Bonds in left for his
second in two nights, tying the score at 2.
"Livan wasn't that sharp. He
left some balls over the middle of the plate and they didn't miss them.
Perhaps it was the second-start blues," Baker said. "Hopefully Kirk Rueter will be sharp
tomorrow (on three days rest) because our bullpen certainly needs a rest."
The Dodgers, who had not recorded back-to-back home runs since Aug. 8 of
last season, ended that drought Thursday night when Tom Goodwin and Grudzielanek
opened the first inning with homers on consecutive pitches against Arizona's
Brian Anderson.
Estes was
victimized Friday night by Marquis
Grissom and Grudzielanek. It was the first time Los Angeles accomplished
the feat of back-to-back homers in three consecutive games since June
29-July 1, 1996.
"It feels so good to hit them, you want to keep hitting
them," Green said. "It's like an addiction. You want to swing hard when you
get up there, so you want to be careful and maintain your swing, rather than
get out of it."
Game notes
The 10 homers the Dodgers have hit in their first
two meetings with the Giants are only four fewer than their total during
last year's 12-game season series. And they still have 17 games to go this
year because of the new unbalanced schedule. ... Kevin Brown will come off the
disabled list Tuesday and make his season debut at Arizona. ... After
surrendering Donnels' homer, Hernandez hit switch-hitter Chad Kreuter with his next pitch
and received a warning from plate umpire Joe Brinkman.
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RECAPS
Baltimore 4
Cleveland 2
Toronto 3
NY Yankees 2
Detroit 5
Chi. White Sox 3
Kansas City 5
Minnesota 3
Oakland 4
Anaheim 2
Boston 6
Tampa Bay 2
Seattle 6
Texas 5
Chicago Cubs 8
Philadelphia 4
Milwaukee 6
Cincinnati 1
Montreal 10
NY Mets 0
Pittsburgh 5
Houston 3
San Diego 14
Colorado 10
St. Louis 8
Arizona 4
Florida 8
Atlanta 0
Los Angeles 10
San Francisco 4
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