Valdes Has a Bruising, but Angels Do Losing

Dodger starter Ismael Valdes was knocked out in the middle rounds Friday night, and Angel starter Omar Olivares went the distance, but that wasn’t reflected on the judges’ scorecards.

It was Valdes whose right hand was being raised by the referee--not to mention his team trainer--after the Dodgers’ 3-1 interleague victory over the Angels before 43,727 in Edison Field.

There were no congratulatory handshakes for the winner afterward. Valdez probably couldn’t squeeze anyone’s hand or exchange any high-fives after knocking down Matt Walbeck’s vicious fifth-inning liner, which left a nasty bruise on his right palm and was still numb more than an hour after he left the game.

Valdes finished the fifth, going long enough to earn the victory and improve to 8-7, but he couldn’t start the sixth, and there is some doubt as to whether he will be able to make his next start.

Of course, it could have been much worse.

“I wouldn’t want anyone to have been in my position,” Valdes said. “It was just a reaction on my part. I don’t know how I got my hand on the ball. If I didn’t, I think it would have hit me in the chest or the head.”

That would have dealt a much more severe blow to the Dodgers, because Valdes has become the team’s most consistent starter, as dominant the past two weeks as Kevin Brown can be many nights.

After a career-high five-game losing streak, Valdes has given up only two runs on 14 hits in 19 innings covering victories over San Franciso, Seattle and Anaheim. He also improved his career record in July to 15-5 with a 2.57 earned-run average.

Effectively spotting his lively fastball on both corners, Valdes cruised through the first four innings, giving up one hit and striking out four, including Troy Glaus to end the first with two runners on.

But Orlando Palmeiro opened the fifth with a double to left, reaching base for the sixth consecutive time in the series, and Jeff Huson’s grounder to second moved Palmeiro to third.

Walbeck then lined a shot that hit Valdes on his pitching hand, Valdes recovering in time to throw Walbeck out. Valdes threw a couple of warmup pitches and remained in the game, giving up Gary DiSarcina’s broken-bat RBI single to right, which pulled the Angels to within 3-1, and getting Darin Erstad to ground out, ending the inning.

“It was amazing he could finish the inning, because he took a really good shot,” Dodger Manager Davey Johnson said. “There was a lot of blood showing [under the skin]. I’m hoping he’ll be OK for his next start, because he’s been on a roll.”

Valdes gave way in the sixth to left-hander Onan Masaoka, who found redemption for giving up the game-winning hit to Mo Vaughn on Thursday night by pitching two hitless innings.

Mike Maddux added a scoreless eighth, and closer Jeff Shaw, after giving up ninth-inning singles to Garret Anderson and Glaus, got Reggie Williams on a game-ending groundout for his 20th save.

Olivares (8-7) was the hard-luck loser, giving up three runs on five hits in his third--and the Angels’ third--complete game of the season.

The right-hander had gone 23 innings without giving up a home run, his longest homerless streak of the season, but Todd Hollandsworth snapped that string with a thunderous first-inning shot that traveled about halfway up the right-field bleachers, an estimated 430 feet, to give the Dodgers a 1-0 lead.

A temporary loss of control by Olivares, who walked Todd Hundley and Adrian Beltre to start the second, led to the Dodgers’ second run. Mark Grudzielanek advanced both runners with a sacrifice bunt, and Eric Young’s grounder to second scored Hundley.

Angel second baseman Randy Velarde saved another run when, with Beltre on third, he ranged toward toward the second-base bag to scoop Hollandsworth’s shot and made an off-balance throw to first to end the inning.

The Dodgers, pulling within nine games of San Francisco in the NL West, made it 3-0 in the fifth when Grudzielanek led off with a double to left and Gary Sheffield smacked a two-out double off the wall in right-center.

“There’s nothing wrong with the way I pitched tonight,” Olivares said after the Angels fell 7 1/2 games behind first-place Texas. “Nobody here should be ashamed. When you analyze the game, their pitchers did their jobs. Nobody should have their head down.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

INTERLEAGUE

ANGELS vs. DODGERS at Edison Field

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GAME 1, THURSDAY

ANGELS 7

DODGERS 6

10 innings

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GAME 2, FRIDAY

DODGERS 3

ANGELS 1

*

GAME 3, TODAY

Steve Sparks vs. Chan Ho Park, 1 p.m., Channel 11

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COVERAGE

TIME TO PAY

The Dodgers aren’t happy with suspensions for Dempsey, Hundley and Arnold for the brawl with Mariners.

Page 10

ALSO

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