| Joe Gutierrez. 5th April, 2006 - 5:53 pm
 With the rain being a hassle during the beginning of the game, the Dodgers were able to withstand the Atlanta Braves Tuesday night on a drenched Dodger Stadium. Brad Penny showed why he should be considered the ace of the starting rotation after going five strong innings, allowing one earned run and five hits.
The first Dodger homerun of the year came from RF J.D. Drew in the first inning when he connected on a two and one pitch from SP John Smoltz, sending it into the right field bleachers with LF Jose Cruz Jr. on base. LA wasn’t done in the first as 2B Jeff Kent and newly called up 1B James Loney reached on base making Smoltz’s first inning of 2006 a hostile one.
This would bring up 3B Bill Mueller who would promptly single to right field, bringing in his second RBI of the season as Kent would score. Next batter CF Jason Repko continued the rally by following the pattern, singling in Loney putting the men in blue up 4-0 before the fans could even get comfortable in the cold weather.
Atlanta then answered back in the second inning when C Brian McCann slugged his first homer of the year off Penny, cutting the lead to just three. After giving up his only run of the night, Penny took command from then on, fanning eight Braves while giving up five hits.
Eric Gagne decided to drop his appeal of his suspension stemming from last season after yelling at the umpire while on the disabled list. This would be one of the main reasons GM Ned Colletti traded for Danys Baez as he would be called to close the game following an Atlanta comeback in the eighth after Jae Seo allowed three runs. Two of the runs would come from the hot Adam LaRoche, who hit his second homer of the year, making it a 4-5 Dodgers lead.
Baez was able to get the first two batters out before giving up a two-out single to 3B Wilson Betemit. This brought up 2B Marcus Giles who pushed the count to a full one before striking out to seal the deal for Los Angeles.
Injury Alert- Dodgers placed 1B Nomar Garciaparra on the 15-day disabled list with a strained rib cage. Let’s see what Loney can bring to the club until Garciaparra returns.
Final Score: Dodgers 5, Braves 4
Coming Up
Odalis Perez takes on the Braves’ Horacio Ramirez at Dodger Stadium |
