Green Enjoys Miller Time

MILWAUKEE -- A cosmic confluence of coincidence seemed to align the stars in Shawn Green’s favor Friday night.

It was the one-year anniversary of his four-homer game against the Milwaukee Brewers, the Dodgers were back in Miller Park, site of Green’s six-hit, seven-RBI monster-piece last May 23, and facing the same pitcher, Glendon Rusch, who started the day Green amassed a major league-record 19 total bases.

But the struggling Dodger right fielder wasn’t expecting--or even hoping for--a repeat performance. “I’ll take one [homer] this series,” Green said. “I’m not greedy.”

Green did homer Friday night, and if it’s the only one he hits this weekend he’ll probably be satisfied, because the timing of it couldn’t have been better for the Dodgers. With one swing of the bat in the seventh inning, Green turned a one-run deficit into a 6-4 victory, extending the Dodgers’ win streak to eight.

A Miller Park crowd of 14,859 saw Green hit left-handed reliever John Foster’s first pitch over the wall in right-center field for a three-run shot, and reliever Guillermo Mota blanked the Brewers for three innings for the first save of his career, as the Dodgers pulled to within 1 1/2 games of first-place San Francisco in the National League West.

“It’s been great being on this win streak, and to be able to contribute to a game that was kind of slipping away from us was huge,” said Green, who also had an RBI single in the first and a single in the third. “It felt really good to put a big homer on the board, because I haven’t really done that too often this year.”

Green’s homer, which capped a four-run Dodger rally, was only his sixth this season, a significant drop-off for a power hitter who smashed 42 homers last season and 49 in 2001, but Miller Park could provide just the elixir Green is looking for.

In seven games in Milwaukee’s new domed stadium, Green is batting .552 (16 for 29) with 10 homers and 17 RBIs. He has a career .280 average (49 for 175) with 17 homers and 36 RBIs against the Brewers. And in nine career games played on May 23, Green is batting .471 (16 for 34) with six home runs and 15 RBIs.

“What’s even better about all of this is Greenie has been under so much pressure,” Dodger catcher Paul Lo Duca said. “Everyone was talking about him coming here and breaking out of his slump, and to do what he did was huge. Hopefully it will get him going like last year.”

With the Dodgers trailing, 4-2, Alex Cora opened the seventh with a double to right off Rusch, and pinch-hitter Ron Coomer doubled to left to make it 4-3. Cesar Izturis popped up a bunt attempt and Milwaukee catcher Eddie Perez made a diving catch, but Lo Duca walked to put runners on first and second.

Milwaukee Manager Ned Yost summoned Foster to face Green, but one hanging slider later, the Brewer lead was gone.

“I wish I saw the ball like he does here,” Brewer shortstop Royce Clayton said of Green. “Shawn always seems to swing the bat well here. Unfortunately he was in a situation where he could beat us, and he did.”

Clayton nearly did the same for the Brewers when he capped a four-run second with a two-run home run off Dodger starter Odalis Perez, who survived a rare rocky start for a Dodger rotation that combined for a 7-0 record and 1.47 earned-run average in the previous eight games.

After singles by Izturis, Lo Duca and Green (RBI), and Fred McGriff’s run-scoring double-play grounder gave the Dodgers a 2-0 lead in the first, the Brewers rallied in the second.

Geoff Jenkins walked, Brady Clark doubled to right and Wes Helms hit a sacrifice fly to make it 2-1. Eddie Perez’s RBI single made it 2-2, and Clayton, who was mired in a one-for-36 slump, lined a two-run home run to left-center to make it 4-2.

But Perez blanked the Brewers over the next four innings, escaping a bases-loaded, two-out jam in the fifth, and an 18-minute delay in the bottom of the eighth, caused when a bank of stadium lights went out, didn’t deter Mota or the Dodgers, who have won 19 of their last 26.

Said Manager Jim Tracy: “There were a lot of things about this game to like.”

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Greener Pasture

Shawn Green’s career statistics at Milwaukee’s Miller Park, Dodger Stadium, and the other National League parks:

*--* Miller Park Dodger Stadium Other NL Parks AB 29 973 1,125 Hits 16 281 313 Avg 552 289 278 Total HR 10 54 71 BR to AB 2.9 18.0 15.8 RBI 17 166 204 RBI to AB 1.7 5.9 5.5

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