Young Homer in Ninth Gives Dodgers 4-3 Win

Eric Young started it, and he sure finished it.

A few minutes after closer Jeff Shaw surrendered a deflating tying run in the top of the ninth, Young’s dramatic, two-out home run salvaged a 4-3 Dodger victory over the Montreal Expos on Wednesday night.

Even before the game-winner, it was a busy night for the Dodger second baseman.

Young scored the first run of the game in the first inning, then, two innings later, slammed head over heels into former teammate Wilton Guerrero during a play at first base--and was called out for obstruction.

But it was the home run, on a 1-and-2 pitch from Expo left-handed reliever Steve Kline, that sent the Dodger Stadium crowd of 34,039 home happy.

After Charles Johnson and Adrian Beltre opened the Dodger ninth with quiet outs, and with everyone in the park expecting extra innings, Young lined Kline’s pitch over right-fielder Vladimir Guerrero’s outstretched glove for his fifth home run of the season and the victory.

Young said that once he hit it, he was just hoping the ball kept going--and that he had no idea if it would go out of the ballpark.

“I don’t hit many home runs, I don’t know what it feels like,” said Young, who has hit all of his homers this season at Dodger Stadium. “I was just hoping it would go over [Guerrero’s] head.”

Chan Ho Park pitched 8 1/3 strong innings but couldn’t seal the deal in the ninth. With one out, Eric Karros misplayed a ball into a double and Shaw gave up a walk and the tying single to pinch-hitter Ryan McGuire.

Park, whose 11-game home winning streak was ended earlier this month, might have been able to complete the game if Karros had been able to come up with Brad Fullmer’s one-hopper in the ninth.

Instead, the ball skipped off Karros’ glove and down the right-field line, and Fullmer was credited with a double. Shane Andrews promptly singled him home to make it, 3-2, and Park was replaced by Shaw, pitching for the third straight day.

After Shaw threw wildly to first, enabling Andrews to move to second, he walked pinch-hitter Mike Mordecai, then surrendered the single to McGuire.

It was Shaw’s second blown save in his last three outings, but he still got credit for his third win in nine decisions.

Before the game, Dodger Manager Glenn Hoffman decided to try to revitalize the slumping middle of his lineup by switching things up.

Hoffman held a lengthy meeting with right fielder Gary Sheffield, who had drawn 15 walks in his last 13 games batting in the No. 5 spot, to find out if he was amenable to switching places with No. 3 hitter Raul Mondesi.

The move paid off immediately.

After Young led off the Dodger first with a single, he stole second and then moved to third on a Trenidad Hubbard groundout. That brought up Sheffield, who lined a run-scoring single on the first pitch from Montreal starter Carl Pavano.

“Just trying something different,” Hoffman said.

The Dodgers lost a prime scoring opportunity in the third when Young was called out for barreling into Expo second baseman Wilton Guerrero at first base on a bunt.

Though Guerrero was wiped out of the play by Young’s left arm and shoulder, and never caught the throw, Young was ruled out for runner obstruction and Park, who was at first base when the play started, was ordered back to first.

Instead of none out and two runners on, the ruling--protested at length by Young and Hoffman--left the Dodgers with one on and one out, and they did not score in the inning.

In the next inning, Montreal tied the score, 1-1, on Fullmer’s 11th home run of the season.

With Park and Pavano both laboring but managing to keep the lid on, the score stayed tied until the sixth, when Karros ripped a deep solo blast into the left-field seats, his 19th homer of the season.

Then, in the eighth, Mondesi extended the lead to 3-1 with a two-out single that knocked in Hubbard from second--which meant the first three Dodger runs were driven in by the middle of the lineup, Sheffield, Karros and Mondesi.