Garciaparra’s Sequel Is Also a Hit

Call it Cinco de Mayo redux.

Runner on second. Bottom of the ninth. Nomar Garciaparra slaps a ground ball past first baseman Prince Fielder. Dodgers win.

The only difference was that Garciaparra didn’t don a poncho before conducting postgame interviews.

The hit brought home Kenny Lofton, who had doubled with one out, giving the Dodgers the 5-4 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers on Saturday night at Dodger Stadium.

“It’s wild it went that way two straight nights,” Garciaparra said. “The big thing was the guys getting to second. Kenny’s double was huge.”

His hit Friday night skimmed off the bag at first and brought home Rafael Furcal with the winning run. And for the second night in a row Garciaparra bailed out closer Danys Baez, who blew a save in the top of the ninth only to be credited with another victory.

It was all familiar to Dodger starter Brad Penny too. One-run games have been a season-long trend for him. He sat at his locker, rifling through photos of his racehorse, Excess Temptations, crossing the finish line to win the fourth race at Hollywood Park by 3 1/4 lengths a day earlier.

He can hardly remember distancing himself from the competition that way. His last five starts have been decided by one run, but this was the first one that ended in a Dodger victory.

Although he uncharacteristically walked six, it was a typical Penny performance. He worked out of several jams, keeping the Dodgers in a game that could have gotten away early.

“The [umpire] had a tight zone and he kept it tight all game,” catcher Russell Martin said. “Brad kept his composure.”

Penny, a 6-foot-4, 260-pound right-hander, is called the “big horse” by Manager Grady Little, not because he owns six thoroughbreds, but because the Dodgers plan to ride him all season.

He is thought of as reliable and consistent, unwavering and sturdy.

Odalis Perez, on the other hand, is considered erratic and undependable. That’s why the Dodgers appeared almost gleeful about replacing the left-hander in the starting rotation today with journeyman Aaron Sele.

Penny and Perez would seem to have nothing more in common than five-letter surnames that begin with P-E. Yet each has pitched in 170 major league games, and their career statistics are eerily similar, from wins and losses to strikeouts and walks.

Their futures, however, might be headed in different directions.

Little made it clear Sele has replaced Perez (3-1, 6.90) for longer than today’s game. Perez has not contacted team officials since leaving five days ago to visit his sick mother in the Dominican Republic, although assistant general manager Kim Ng has spoken to his agent. If the Dodgers didn’t owe Perez about $21 million over the next two years, they would be tempted to release him.

Penny, who signed a three-year, $25 million extension last season, remains prominent in their plans. And no wonder. Even on a night when he lacks command, he battles. He churned through 5 1/3 innings, throwing 116 pitches and stranding eight runners. The score was 3-3 when he departed.

Garciaparra has been making noise with his bat. Before the winning hit, he doubled twice, driving in a run each time. And he made an equally important contribution with his glove with one out and runners at the corners in the sixth. Geoff Jenkins grounded to second base, but Furcal’s throw to first to complete the double play was off line and in the dirt. Garciaparra made a sprawling stab of the ball while keeping his foot on the base, and the score remained tied.

Penny ran into trouble early. When Ricky Weeks doubled and scored in the first, it marked the third time in Penny’s last four starts that the leadoff batter doubled and marked the fourth time in seven starts that the opposition scored in the first inning.

The Dodgers took the lead in the seventh on a sacrifice fly by Jose Cruz Jr., but Baez couldn’t nail it down, giving up a two-out RBI single in the ninth to Bill Hall.

Garciaparra got his chance in the bottom of the inning, though, and his grounder bounced between a diving Fielder and the bag.

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Penny vs. Perez

The career numbers for Dodgers’ Brad Penny and Odalis Perez are similar:

*--* PITCHER G IP H HR BB K Rec ERA Penny 170 1012 1,001 98 319 728 58-54 3.96 2006 7 42.1 40 2 13 30 2-1 2.98 Perez 170 941.2 921 112 262 673 55-52 4.16 2006 6 30 41 4 10 17 3-1 6.90

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