Saturday, June 06, 2009
Sports NewsMayfield's Mutterings: Springing into Mutterings


Ethier's 2-run double gives Dodgers 4-3 win

Send a link to a friend

[June 06, 2009]  LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Andre Ethier hit a two-run double with the bases loaded in the ninth inning after third baseman Pedro Feliz made a fielding error with two outs, giving the Los Angeles Dodgers a 4-3 victory Friday night and snapping the Philadelphia Phillies' seven-game winning streak.

RestaurantBrad Lidge (0-3) got his fifth blown save of the season in 18 attempts, after going 41 for 41 last season and 7 for 7 in the postseason to help the Phillies win their second World Series title.

Casey Blake started the two-out rally with a single, James Loney walked and Russell Martin reached when Feliz botched his routine grounder. Ethier then lined Lidge's next pitch into the right-field corner.

Jonathan Broxton (6-0) got the win, allowing one hit in a scoreless ninth.

Misc

Dodgers starter Eric Milton allowed three runs - one earned - and eight hits in 4 1-3 innings. Manager Joe Torre, who is six wins away from surpassing Sparky Anderson for fifth place on the all-time list, did his best impersonation of Anderson in the fifth when he gave a rather quick hook to Milton with one out and a runner at third base.

The next hitter was Feliz, who was 7 for 13 against Milton. Torre's switch to right-hander Guillermo Mota worked to perfection, as Feliz lined out to second baseman Orlando Hudson with the infield in, and Eric Bruntlett flied out to left. Mota also retired the side in order in the sixth.

Jamie Moyer allowed two runs and four hits over seven innings in a matchup of the teams with the two best records in baseball. The 46-year-old left-hander did not allow a hit between Juan Pierre's leadoff single in the first inning and Matt Kemp's leadoff single in the sixth.

The Dodgers' first two runs came on an RBI groundout in the fourth by Hudson and a bloop RBI single by Loney with two out in the seventh. In their last five games, the defending NL West champions have scored just four runs in 35 innings against their opponents' starting pitchers.

Philadelphia scratched out a run in the third on a grounder to first base by Raul Ibanez that could have been an inning-ending 3-6-1 double play. But Milton was late getting off the mound, and shortstop Rafael Furcal had no one to throw it to at first as Jayson Werth crossed the plate. The RBI increased Ibanez's league-leading total to 54.

The Dodgers had another embarrassing defensive lapse during the Phillies' two-run fourth. Chase Utley hit a two-out single that scored Bruntlett, and third-base coach Sam Perlozzo frantically waved Chris Coste around when he saw Ethier's relay throw from right field go to second base instead of home. Furcal quickly turned and made a perfect peg to Martin at the plate, but the ball popped out of his glove as Coste slid into him.

[to top of second column]

Both runs were unearned, the result of a fielding error by second baseman Hudson on Coste's grounder up the middle. It was the third error this season by the three-time Gold Glove winner.

Notes: The NBA finals are in town this week, ad Lakers guard Sasha Vujacic threw out a ceremonial first pitch. The right-hander delivered a perfect strike to Brad Ausmus. ... The Phillies' world championship was Philadelphia's first by a major professional team since 1983, when the 76ers swept the Lakers in the finals. ... Moyer and Milton matched up against each other in a regular-season game only one other time - June 17, 2000, when Moyer pitched the Seattle Mariners to a 12-3 victory over the Minnesota Twins at the Metrodome. ... Torre had Moyer on his pitching staff when he managed St. Louis in 1991. Moyer was 0-5 with a 5.74 ERA that season, the only one in which the 23-year veteran did not record a victory.

[Associated Press]

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

< Sports index

Back to top


 

News | Sports | Business | Rural Review | Teaching & Learning | Home and Family | Tourism | Obituaries

Community | Perspectives | Law & Courts | Leisure Time | Spiritual Life | Health & Fitness | Teen Scene
Calendar | Letters to the Editor