Thursday, August 01, 2002
Beltre leads Dodgers out of homer slump
By JOE KAY
AP Sports Writer
Adrian Beltre is always better in the second half. The Los Angeles Dodgers wish they could say the same thing about themselves. Beltre homered twice, leading Los Angeles out of its recent power slump, and the Dodgers hit four homers in all as they pulled away to an 11-5 victory Wednesday over the Reds.
Their third baseman is known for his late surges — he's a .255 career hitter in the first half of the season, .279 in the second half. And he's at it again.
“It's not how you start, it's how you finish,” Beltre said.
He leads the Dodgers with 18 RBIs since the All-Star break and has been particularly hot lately, going 11-for-22 with a double, two triples, two homers and nine RBIs in the last five games.
“He's got thunder in his bat,” said Shawn Green, who also homered. “When he's hot, he's a very tough out. What you're seeing now is, he's starting to get hot.”
The Dodgers wish they could acquire his knack for getting better as the season goes along.
They led the NL West by 2 1/2 games at the All-Star break, but a 6-13 slide has dropped them into second place, five games behind Arizona. They're one game ahead of third-place San Francisco in the wild-card standings.
The offense has been their downfall, scoring two or fewer runs in 10 of the last 19 games. They'd gone five games without a homer, until Paul Lo Duca led off the fourth with one off Brian Moehler (1-1).
Green followed with his first homer since July 11 and his 28th overall. Beltre's solo homer started a five-run eighth inning that made it 9-3, and he had a two-run shot in the ninth off Jose Rijo.
“If we just put it all together and do the little things like we did today, we're going to be fine,” Beltre said.
The Reds had a chance Wednesday against Hideo Nomo (11-6), who struggled mightily in the first two innings. He gave up a pair of runs in a 30-pitch first inning, then let the Reds load the bases in the second.
Nomo got Ken Griffey Jr. to ground out and end that threat.
“He made two good pitches to Junior to get out of that bases-loaded situation,” Lo Duca said. “Even though he wasn't throwing good, to get out of that jam was the key to the whole game.”
NOTES: Nomo hadn't beaten the Reds since May 5, 1997, losing his last four decisions against them. He's 5-4 in 10 career starts against the Reds. ... Beltre also hit two homers at Colorado on Sept. 10, 2000. ... The Reds reached the 64 million mark for all-time attendance at Cinergy Field, which opened as Riverfront Stadium in 1970. The Reds picked a fan at random to throw out a ceremonial first pitch, and gave away 64 replicas of Cinergy. ... In seven starts since returning from a pulled hamstring, Griffey is 9-for-23 (.391) with a homer and six RBIs. He was 2-for-5 Wednesday with an RBI double and run-scoring single.
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Beltre leads Dodgers out of homer slump
