Wednesday, May 29, 2002
Dodgers 8, Brewers 4
The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — Marquis Grissom can't argue with the Milwaukee Brewers' decision to trade him to the Los Angeles Dodgers two seasons ago. On Tuesday night, the Brewers regretted it.
Grissom hit a go-ahead two-run homer and added an RBI single as the Dodgers overcame a four-run deficit to beat the Brewers 8-4 Tuesday night for their eighth victory in 12 games.
It was the sixth homer this season for the 35-year-old Grissom, who spent three seasons with the Brewers before getting traded to the Dodgers in February 2001.
“My first year was tough, health-wise, and I just couldn't do the job,” said Grissom, who was a two-time All-Star with Montreal. “When the Brewers traded me, they talked about the amount of money I made and the fact that I wasn't producing.
“Then when I came here, I just wanted to get some at-bats so that I could show people that I was healthy and I'm not finished playing. When you get traded, you have to look at the positive and realize that you're still in the big leagues. I just want to finish up my career as strong as possible.”
Kazuhisa Ishii (8-1) beat Glendon Rusch for the second time in six days, allowing four runs — three earned — and six hits over 6 2-3 innings with four strikeouts and three walks.
“He had one tough inning, but then he shut them down and gave us a chance to get back into the game,” teammate Shawn Green said.
Two nights after becoming the 13th batter ever to homer twice in one game against four-time Cy Young winner Randy Johnson, Grissom drove Rusch's 2-2 pitch to left-center to give the Dodgers a 5-4 lead following a one-out single by Brian Jordan.
Grissom added an RBI single during the Dodgers' three-run eighth inning.
Rusch (3-5) allowed five runs and nine hits in 5 1-3 innings.
Ishii, who didn't allow more than two earned runs in any of his previous five starts, gave up four in the third. Richie Sexson hit a bases-loaded two-run single, which was followed by RBI singles from Alex Ochoa and Jose Hernandez.
“We had some opportunities to knock him out early,” second baseman Eric Young said. “But then he settled down and started pitching the way he's capable of pitching. He got his control back and started mixing up his pitches well.”
Ochoa started in left field instead of Geoff Jenkins, who came up with nine runners on base Monday and went 0-for-5 with an RBI groundout. Jenkins, who played in 50 of Milwaukee's previous 51 games this season, is in an 0-for-16 drought that has dropped his average to .220.
“He's coming back tomorrow. I just wanted him to take a day and do nothing. I didn't want him thinking about hitting at all. I mean, there were a couple of times he was on the bench and I told him to leave, go inside and ride a bike or something. I just didn't want him outside getting all worked up about hitting.”
Cesar Izturis led off the Dodgers' fourth with a single, and was awarded second after the throw from Young skipped toward the photographers' well. First-base umpire Derryl Cousins motioned that the ball was still alive, but was overruled, prompting a long but civil argument from Brewers manager Jerry Royster.
“It's the right call, but the ground rules were not set up correctly. And that was my argument,” Royster said. “The camera pit poles are in play, and that's what it hit. He checked it out and saw that the poles were recessed.”
Izturis advanced on a wild pitch and scored on Adrian Beltre's infield single behind second base. Green singled and Eric Karros singled home Beltre from second one out later, trimming Milwaukee's lead to 4-2.
Ishii had an embarrassing moment at the plate in the third inning. He popped up an attempted sacrifice bunt and didn't run it out, expecting the ball to be caught by charging third baseman Mark Loretta. But Loretta intentionally let it drop and started an inning-ending double play.
Ishii sacrificed successfully in the fifth, however, and it paid off when Jeff Reboulet scored on Beltre's sacrifice fly for the Dodgers' third run. Ishii sacrificed Reboulet to second again in the sixth, but Izturis stranded him there.
“Our guys have been working on getting the bunts down, but it's tough,” Reboulet said. “When you get in there and start throwing heavy sinkers and stuff like that, you can't simulate that in batting practice. But he got it down a couple of times, and I was happy because he made it a little easier on me.”
Notes: Green was given the NL player of the week award after hitting nine homers — including four in one game — last week. ... Bryan Corey, who was called up from Triple-A Las Vegas when Kevin Brown went on the DL Monday, made his Dodgers debut with a perfect ninth inning.
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Dodgers 8, Brewers 4
