Late Wake Up for Dodger Offense

Yogi Berra would have loved this one. It really was deja vu all over again.

Eric Karros snapped a tie score with a bases-loaded, two-run single in the top of the ninth, and Adrian Beltre capped a six-run outburst with a three-run home run to lift the Dodgers to a 10-4 victory over the Colorado Rockies before 30,195 in Coors Field on Tuesday night.

It was a near copy of the Dodgers’ five-run ninth Monday night, when Karros hit a bases-loaded, two-run single and Beltre hit a three-run homer to help the Dodgers pull away for an 11-5 win over Colorado.

The Dodgers have won seven of eight games, are in a first-place tie with Arizona in the NL West and will go for a three-game sweep of the Rockies today.

“We had a tough [10-9] loss in Arizona [on May 26] and that could have sent us into a tailspin,” said Karros, who has knocked in nine runs in his last three games, “but we’ve been playing well of late.”

Lately, they’ve been playing very well late. The Dodger offense scored four runs in the eighth inning and five in the ninth Monday night, and they took over again in the ninth Tuesday night after former Dodger Todd Hollandsworth’s solo home run off reliever Giovanni Carrara pulled the Rockies even, 4-4, in the bottom of the eighth.

Dave Roberts opened the ninth with a pinch-hit double, and Cesar Izturis, who was pulled in the bottom of the ninth because of a sore left hip and is questionable for today’s game, bunted Roberts to third.

Colorado looked like it might escape the jam when Paul Lo Duca, attempting to back away from a Todd Jones inside fastball, inadvertently tapped a weak grounder to third for the second out.

Shawn Green was walked intentionally, and Brian Jordan walked on a full-count pitch to load the bases. Karros fell behind, 0-and-2, but after fouling off one pitch, he stroked a two-run single to right-center for a 6-4 lead.

“He can’t throw a wild pitch, and he can’t miss inside, because if he hits me, a run scores,” Karros said. “So even though it’s 0-2, you have to feel like you have the advantage. As a hitter, with two strikes, you’re just trying to hit the ball.”

Marquis Grissom’s RBI single made it 7-4, and Beltre, who tripled and scored on Mark Grudzielanek’s single in the fourth inning, launched his sixth homer of the season an estimated 442 feet to left-center for a 10-4 lead.

“You can’t have any better at-bats than we had in the top of the ninth inning,” Manager Jim Tracy said. “The gratifying thing is none of those were easy at-bats.”

Karros, who is batting .352 with runners in scoring position, seems to have nothing but good at-bats in Coors Field. He has a lifetime .373 average with 19 homers and 54 RBIs here.

The Dodgers, who struggled offensively for the first six weeks of the season, have scored 117 runs in the last 18 games, an average of 6.5 a game, and they’ve reached double figures in runs in 11 of the last 15 games.

With Beltre’s ninth-inning shot, the Dodgers have homered in a season-high 12 consecutive games, slugging 24 homers during that span. They hit 22 home runs in their first 40 games.

Dodger starter Hideo Nomo was hit hard Tuesday night but gave up only three runs and 11 hits in seven innings. Reliever Jesse Orosco, who retired Juan Pierre on a fly to shallow left with runners on first and third to end the ninth, got the win.

Second baseman Mark Grudzielanek also preserved the tie with an over-the-shoulder, back-to-home-plate catch of pinch-hitter Greg Norton’s pop to shallow right field with runners on first and third and one out in the eighth.