Not Business as Usual for Green on Day After

Shawn Green had a full day to absorb Thursday’s four-homer, six-hit, six-run, seven-RBI game against Milwaukee, but by Friday afternoon the Dodger right fielder still hadn’t come to grips with the magnitude of it.

“It was one of those days when all the stars had to be aligned right,” Green said before Friday night’s game against Arizona. “I saw [Dodger catcher] Paul Lo Duca get six hits last year and remember being amazed. I saw [Seattle outfielder] Mike Cameron hit four homers [on May 2] and thought that was incredible. To have both in one day blows my mind. It still hasn’t sunk in.”

The Dodgers were bombarded with interview requests for Green on Thursday and Friday. Green’s voicemail on his cell phone filled up Thursday afternoon, and he erased them before boarding the team’s flight from Milwaukee to Phoenix. By the time the plane landed, Green’s voicemail was full again.

Green, who also doubled and singled in the game, set a major league record with 19 total bases, tied a modern major league mark with six runs and a National League mark with five extra-base hits. He became the first Los Angeles Dodger to hit four homers in a game; Gil Hodges hit four in a game for Brooklyn in 1950.

“I sat in my hotel room [Thursday] and watched ‘Baseball Tonight’ and ‘SportsCenter,’ and I was even more amazed than I was in the dugout Thursday,” Dodger Manager Jim Tracy said. “Do you know how hard that is to do?

“He centered six balls and mashed them. That single [in the eighth inning] was a heat-seeking missile.... Think about it. Six for six with four home runs, six runs, seven RBIs, 19 total bases ... that’s a pretty good career for some guys.”

*

Reliever Jesse Orosco, who has been sidelined by a strained abdominal muscle, threw in the bullpen Thursday and will throw again today and Monday. The Dodgers expect Orosco to be ready when he is eligible to come off the disabled list Wednesday.... Left-hander Terry Mulholland, out since May 4 because of back spasms, joined the team in Arizona on Friday and threw off the mound for the first time in weeks. The reliever is still at least a week from being activated.

TONIGHT

DODGERS’

ANDY ASHBY

(3-4, 3.21 ERA)

vs.

DIAMONDBACKS’

RICK HELLING

(4-4, 5.84)

Bank One Ballpark, Phoenix, 7 p.m.

TV--Channel 13. Radio--KXTA (1150), KWKW (1330).

Update--Since a shaky start in Atlanta on May 9, Ashby has allowed two earned runs and 10 hits in 13 innings of his last two starts. Helling, who leads the major leagues with 13 home runs allowed, hasn’t pitched since May 15 because his rotation spot was skipped because of an off-day this week.