Choi Fits Into Grand Scheme

Hee-Seop Choi spent so much time on the Dodger bench during the final month of last season that he could have filed for unemployment insurance.

That’s what can happen when you hit .161 with no home runs in limited playing time with a new team and fail to gain the confidence of your manager.

But Jim Tracy might have a new perspective on Choi after this week.

One start after collecting a career-high four hits, Choi continued to make a strong case in his bid to become the everyday first baseman by hitting the first grand slam of his career to lift the Dodgers to a 6-3 victory over the Colorado Rockies on Friday night in front of 40,150 at Dodger Stadium.

Choi’s fifth-inning slam was his third homer of the season and gave him four runs batted in in a game for the first time. He also fielded a sharply hit grounder off the bat of Todd Helton and started a 3-6-1 double play that squelched a Colorado rally in the eighth.

“The guy’s starting to get himself into a good sync,” Tracy said of Choi, who has hit .391 in his last seven games to raise his average from .206 to .264.

Odalis Perez pitched seven strong innings and J.D. Drew added a two-run homer for the Dodgers, who ended a three-game losing streak when Yhency Brazoban notched his sixth save.

Colorado starter Jason Jennings, who had limited the Dodgers to one run a week ago during a complete-game victory at Coors Field, held the Dodgers hitless before unraveling during their four-run fifth.

Ricky Ledee led off the inning with a walk and went to third on Paul Bako’s hit-and-run single to center. Perez sacrificed Bako to second and Cesar Izturis drew a full-count walk before Choi hit the first pitch he saw from Jennings over the fence in left center.

“I want to play every day,” Choi said. “My job is [against] right-handed pitchers. Left-handed pitchers? I don’t know. I want to play.”

Tracy said Olmedo Saenz, who is hitting .400 against left-handers, would start at first base tonight against Colorado left-hander Joe Kennedy, but he acknowledged “there could become a point” when he would be comfortable playing Choi regularly against left-handers.

Choi stepped into the on-deck circle with the bases loaded in the sixth and nearly had an opportunity for a second slam before Colorado catcher Todd Greene made a sliding catch of Izturis’ foul popup near the backstop to end the inning.

The crowd greeted Choi in the seventh by enthusiastically chanting his name before he drew a walk and scored on Drew’s fourth homer, which deflected off a fan in the front row in left.

“I’m happy for him,” Perez said of Choi. “The beginning was really tough for him. This year I believe he’s working hard and it’s nice to see him driving the ball and scoring runs.”

Perez (4-1) gave up three hits and one run, ending a streak of seven consecutive outings in which a Dodger starter had failed to record a quality start of six innings or more and three earned runs or fewer. Perez struck out seven and walked one.

“They’re not in Colorado anymore,” Perez said of the Rockies, who had tagged him for eight runs in five innings in his last start. “Any time they come into town, it’s tough for them to score runs. This is a different field.”

The game did not get off to a particularly rousing start for the Dodgers, who had only five hits.

Izturis committed his first fielding error in 172 games when the shortstop bobbled Preston Wilson’s first-inning grounder, stumbled while trying to collect himself and fell on the infield dirt. That put runners on first and second with two out, but Matt Holliday grounded into a fielder’s choice to end the inning.

The Rockies took a 1-0 lead on Helton’s RBI grounder in the third.