Dodgers Put Away a Brewer Six-Pack

The starting pitcher had a freak injury and the opposition promptly took a six-run lead.

It took misfortune of that magnitude to put the brakes on the Dodgers’ incredible waltz through the early portion of the schedule.

For all of an hour.

The Dodgers, in their finest comeback of a two-week string of them, clawed back to defeat the Milwaukee Brewers, 8-6, Tuesday in front of 11,029 fans who could believe their eyes only because, well, this kind of collapse tends to happen to the Brewers.

Milton Bradley hit a two-run homer in the 10th inning, his third in two games here, capping a dizzying display of Dodger determination that also included three pinch-hits, a diving catch of a Brewer squeeze attempt that resulted in a double play, six scoreless innings from the bullpen and a two-out, two-strike single by Cesar Izturis that tied the score in the ninth.

Bradley was almost apologetic in describing heroics that are becoming routine.

“It’s getting redundant,” he said. “I’m getting tired of talking about it. You know the story.”

Only the details differed.

Starter Elmer Dessens was sailing along when he experienced muscle spasms in his right shoulder with one out and two on in the fourth and was relieved by Buddy Carlyle.

Apparently distracted by the runner at second, Carlyle gave up a home run to Chris Magruder.

A shaken Carlyle then walked two batters and hit another before Lyle Overbay doubled to center, the ball scooting past Bradley as three more runs scored, making it 6-0.

The Dodgers shrugged and plugged along.

“We never panic, that’s one thing I like about this team,” third baseman Jose Valentin said. “We are so positive right now that we could be 10 runs down and come back.”

Pinch-hitter Jason Grabowski homered in the sixth and the Dodgers added four runs in the seventh with two out. Jeff Kent doubled and scored, the 11th time in 13 games he has scored at least once. Pinch-hitters Jason Phillips and Olmedo Saenz delivered RBI hits and Izturis doubled in two runs.

Meanwhile, rookie relievers D.J. Houlton and Steve Schmoll combined for three scoreless innings. Schmoll also contributed with his glove after Jeff Cirillo had doubled and moved to third on a fly out in the eighth, leaving his feet to spear J.J. Hardy’s squeeze and doubling Cirillo off third.

In the ninth, Izturis, looking for a slider and getting a fastball, sliced a single to the opposite field, scoring Ricky Ledee to tie the score. Bradley’s homer, or something like it, seemed almost inevitable, after Giovanni Carrara (2-0) pitched a scoreless ninth and before Yhency Brazoban notched his third save despite allowing the first two batters to reach base in the 10th.

“It was a tremendous comeback,” Manager Jim Tracy said. “From the fifth inning on, we didn’t give at-bats away. If you don’t do it that way, six runs becomes insurmountable.”

It was the seventh consecutive victory and marked the first time in six years the Dodgers (11-2) had overcome a six-run deficit. The Brewers (5-8) have lost five in a row.

Good news just keeps coming for the Dodgers. Not that a cavalry rescue is in order, but Brad Penny is on his way back.

Dodger brass will meet with the right-hander today in San Diego and decide whether his next start Sunday will be for the Dodgers or triple-A Las Vegas. Penny’s encouraging performance Monday for Las Vegas excited the Dodgers, but they aren’t sure they want his first major league start since he aggravated his biceps nerve injury in September to be at hitter-friendly Coors Field.

The injury to Dessens, the current fifth starter, could be a factor. Tracy would not speculate on who would fill the void if Dessens missed a start and Penny were held out.

He would, however, say plenty about how his team is playing.

“We’ve played pretty good baseball out of the gate when people didn’t think we would,” he said.

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Blue Streak

After Tuesday’s 8-6 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers, the Dodgers improved their record to 11-2, the best in the major leagues. A look at the best L.A. Dodger records through a selected number of games.

*--* Games Record Year 10 9-1 1981 20 17-3 1977 30 24-6 1977 40 30-10 1977 50 36-14 1974 81 55-26 1974 100 66-34 1962

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