Cedeno Spoils It for Brewers

For 6 1/2 innings Thursday, it looked as if it might be a memorable evening at Dodger Stadium.

Instead, it turned out to be the kind of night the Milwaukee Brewers would just as soon forget.

After Roger Cedeno broke up Milwaukee right-hander Steve Woodard’s bid for a perfect game with a home run, his first of the season, to lead off the seventh, the Dodgers went on to beat Milwaukee, 4-1, thanks to a pair of Brewer errors and a run-scoring wild pitch.

The victory, before an announced crowd of 30,024, assured the Dodgers (81-78) of finishing no worse than .500 for the sixth consecutive season, better than the alternative but not much consolation for falling far out of the postseason picture.

Woodard, a rookie, retired the first 18 Dodgers he faced, throwing a total of only 16 balls. Until the sixth inning, the Brewers had not even been required to make a difficult play behind him.

Then, in the sixth, Milwaukee second baseman Fernando Vina had to backhand a grounder headed to center field and make a difficult throw to nip Dodger catcher Paul LoDuca. Next up was Juan Castro, who hit a hot smash down the line that Brewer third baseman Jeff Cirillo knocked down to throw out Castro. And finally, pinch-hitter Angel Pena hit a line drive down the left-field line that landed a foot foul before he grounded out.

But after falling behind Cedeno 2-and-0 to lead off the seventh, Woodard threw a fastball that Cedeno deposited in a place where no Brewer could get a glove on it: the seats in right-center field.

“I knew he had been throwing the perfect game,” Cedeno said, “and I wanted to get at least a base hit. I was waiting for the fastball.

“You think if you can get a hit, you can take the pressure off the team.”

Woodard insisted there was no pressure on him.

“I wasn’t thinking about it [the perfect game],” he said. “They ended up hitting the same pitch I had been throwing all night.”

Jose Valentin’s 16th home run of the season, against Dodger starter Dave Mlicki, had given the Brewers the lead in the second.

LoDuca, getting his first start of the season, responded by cutting down two Brewers on steal attempts and smacking a leadoff double in the eighth that lead to the deciding runs.

Castro, trying to move LoDuca over to third, dropped down a bunt that Milwaukee first baseman Mark Loretta butchered. First, Loretta failed to grab the ball, his glove shoving it farther away from him.

That was one error.

When he finally picked up the ball, Loretta heaved it into right field.

LoDuca scored on that play, Castro came around to score on a wild pitch by Chad Fox and Trenidad Hubbard singled in a third run.

Jeff Shaw closed out the Brewers in the ninth for his 46th save.