Dodgers Get a Win They Can Clutch

Dodger Manager Jim Tracy has been patient, but he had to be wondering if that big hit, the one with two out and runners on base to break open a close game, the one that would create some breathing room for a team that has been gasping for runs, would ever come.

It finally arrived Friday night. And it brought a few friends.

Eric Karros sparked an 8-5 victory over the Montreal Expos, ending a string of 96 at-bats without a home run with a two-out, two-run blast to give the Dodgers a lead in the fifth inning. The Dodgers then staged a two-out, four-run rally in the sixth before 48,146 in Dodger Stadium.

It was the most runs the Dodgers had scored since a 10-0 victory in Chicago on April 26, and the four-run sixth was their biggest inning since a six-run sixth against the Cubs that day.

The Dodgers, who were batting .224 with runners in scoring position and two out before the game, scored another run on a two-out hit, Marquis Grissom’s solo homer in the fourth, giving them seven two-out runs. Karros’ homer was the team’s first with a runner on base since April 28.

“To me, those two-out hits with a guy on second are like three-run home runs,” Grissom said. “They’re big clutch hits that lift your team and cause the momentum of the game to change.”

They were all but absent from the Dodger landscape for the past two weeks, as the team scored three runs or less in 14 of 16 games. But they came in bunches Friday night.

“That’s something we haven’t seen in the last few weeks,” Tracy said of the two-out hits, several of which went to the opposite field. “And to see the kinds of at-bats we had in those situations was very encouraging.”

No. 3 batter Shawn Green continued to struggle, extending his hitless streak to 15 at-bats and failing to drive a ball out of the infield for the fifth game in a row, his average sinking to .230.

But leadoff batter Dave Roberts, returning to the lineup after four games out because of a strained right quadriceps, had two singles and a run batted in, No. 2 batter Adrian Beltre keyed the sixth-inning rally with a two-run double, cleanup batter Paul Lo Duca had two hits and an RBI, and No. 8 hitter Cesar Izturis had two doubles and a run.

And Karros came up huge in the fifth spot, making a diving stop of Jose Vidro’s grounder and flipping to first with the bases loaded to end the second inning and turning a one-run deficit into a one-run lead with his homer in the fifth.

The performance came on Eric Karros T-shirt Giveaway Night in Dodger Stadium. Can Shawn Green T-shirt night be that far behind?

“That was a big home run EK hit,” Tracy said. “It really energized the entire club, and things snowballed from there.”

The Expos took a 3-2 lead with two runs in the top of the fifth, and pitcher Tony Armas looked as if he might breeze through the bottom of the fifth when he retired the first two Dodgers. But Lo Duca shot a ground-ball single to left, and Karros ripped his third homer of the season into the left-field bullpen for a 4-3 lead.

The Dodgers then blew the game open in the sixth. After Grissom singled and Roberts walked, Beltre greeted reliever Britt Reames with a two-run double to right, giving the Dodgers a 6-3 lead. Green was intentionally walked, and Lo Duca slapped an RBI single to right, scoring Beltre for a 7-3 lead. Green scored on an overthrow to third, making it 8-3.

Vidro’s two-run double cut the lead to 8-5 in the eighth, but Dodger closer Eric Gagne threw a scoreless ninth for his 14th save, preserving the victory for starter Hideo Nomo, who improved to 3-5 despite giving up three runs on six hits and walking five--bringing his season walk total to 34--in a shaky 52/3-inning performance.

After mustering a total of four hits in back-to-back shutouts to the New York Mets Tuesday and Wednesday, the Dodgers have scored 12 runs in two wins over the Expos.

“Those days are going to happen, but we never got down,” Grissom said. “We just have to keep swinging the bats, making things happen, instead of sitting back, panicking, and worrying about hitting into double plays.”