Lo Duca Takes One for Dodgers

The ink was barely dry on Paul Lo Duca’s quotes ripping Arizona Manager Bob Brenly for not selecting him to the National League All-Star team in early July when the Dodger catcher went into a lengthy tailspin, in which he looked like anything but an All-Star.

Lo Duca hit .326 in the first half but .203 in the six weeks after the All-Star break, his average falling to .285 entering Friday night. The 123-point drop-off was the second largest in the major leagues behind Florida third baseman Mike Lowell’s 132-point fall.

But Lo Duca is beginning to awake from his second-half slumber, following Thursday’s key pinch-hit single with two big runs batted in Friday night, homering off Atlanta starter Greg Maddux in the first inning and getting hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the ninth to lift the Dodgers to a 4-3 victory over the Braves.

“It barely nicked my elbow pad, but it did hit me,” said Lo Duca, whose RBI single in the seventh inning Thursday knocked in the tying run in an eventual 6-2 win over Florida.

“It feels good. I got the hit [Thursday] and let out a sigh of relief. Then I hit the home run. I don’t care, just as long as it comes at a crucial time. I got hit by a pitch at a crucial time.”

A Dodger Stadium crowd of 50,341 marked Atlanta right fielder Gary Sheffield’s return to Los Angeles with hearty boos before every one of his at-bats--Sheffield, traded to the Braves in January after a stormy tenure with the Dodgers, went 0 for 4 with three popups and a groundout.

The Dodgers, meanwhile, won for the 12th time in 15 games and increased their wild-card lead over San Francisco to 3 1/2 games, thanks to a game-winning rally that didn’t include a hit.

Dave Roberts opened the ninth with a walk off Brave reliever Darren Holmes and stole second. Marquis Grissom grounded to short, with Roberts holding, and Shawn Green, who homered in the first inning, was intentionally walked.

Adrian Beltre worked the count full before fouling off three pitches. Holmes then tried to pick off Roberts at second, but his throw bounced into center field, allowing the runners to advance.

Beltre was walked intentionally to load the bases, and Atlanta Manager Bobby Cox summoned right-hander Kevin Gryboski. On a 2-1 pitch, Gryboski’s tailing fastball nicked Lo Duca, and Roberts jogged home with the winning run.

While the Dodgers celebrated a victory that improved their record to 23-11 in one-run games, starter Odalis Perez fumed after being ejected after the seventh, when a controversial balk call helped the Braves score the tying run.

The left-hander hit Darren Bragg with a pitch to open the inning, and Roberts made a nice leaping catch of pinch-hitter Javy Lopez’s drive to left-center for the first out.

Pinch-hitter Marcus Giles flied to right, and Perez appeared to pick off Bragg, who was tagged out at second. But first-base umpire Doug Eddings cited Perez for a balk and awarded Bragg second.

Rafael Furcal then lined a ground-rule double to right field to score Bragg for a 3-3 tie.

“Unbelievable,” said Perez, who gave up three runs and five hits in seven innings. “I’ve been doing this ... all season, and it’s the first time they’ve called it. ... I can’t believe it. That’s ridiculous. How come they do it with the tying run on [first] base?”

The Dodgers scored three runs on two home runs in the first, the first time in two years Maddux has given up two homers in the first inning.

Grissom, hitless in his first 12 at-bats of the home stand, started the rally with a one-out single to center, and Green sliced an opposite-field fly ball that cleared the short fence near the left-field foul pole for a two-run homer, his 37th of the season.

The shot also gave Green 86 home runs in 2001 and 2002, the highest two-year total in Dodger history, a record previously held by Duke Snider, who hit 43 homers in 1955 and 42 in 1956. Lo Duca capped the rally with a two-out homer to center, his eighth.

“The big key for him offensively is he has such a short stroke that if he stays away from a pull mode of thinking, he’s a very dangerous hitter,” Dodger Manager Jim Tracy said of Lo Duca. “He has to stay on top of the ball, and not under it.”

Friday night, he was just as dangerous when the ball was on top of him.