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Saturday, Aug. 5 10:10pm ET
Blanco's blast in 10th lifts Brewers | |||||
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GAME LOG
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Henry Blanco did more damage to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Saturday night than he was allowed to do for them in the nine years he languished in their minor leagues. Blanco, whose Dodgers career consisted of just three games with the big club, hit a two-run homer in the 10th inning and threw out all three baserunners trying to steal on him as the Milwaukee Brewers won 4-2. "I spent nine years with them. I guess it was time to move on, but there's no hard feelings," said Blanco, who began his career as a third baseman until current Anaheim manager Mike Scioscia -- the Dodgers' career leader in games caught -- helped Blanco make a smooth transition behind the plate. Blanco erased Tom Goodwin on the basepaths in the first inning, Adrian Beltre in the seventh and Gary Sheffield in the ninth. He has caught 28 of 49 basestealers this season. "Had he not been able to do the things he did defensively, we probably never would have gotten to that point," manager Davey Lopes said. "He's the best defensive catcher in the National League, without question. And if anybody had any doubts before tonight, I think they'll change their minds." Dodgers manager Davey Johnson said, "It was Blanco's night. He threw out everybody who ran, and hit the big home run." Jose Hernandez got his third hit, a two-out single off Mike Fetters (4-2), before Blanco drove the next pitch into the left-field pavilion for his sixth homer. "Hopefully the home run will relax me at the plate," said Blanco, hitless in his previous 12 at-bats. "I was having a bad night at the plate and I was just trying to make something happen. It's good to help the team win a game." Geoff Jenkins homered twice and Juan Acevedo (2-4) pitched a scoreless ninth inning to pick up the victory in relief of Jeff D'Amico. Curtis Leskanic got three outs for his fourth save in as many chances. The right-hander, who took over the closer role after Bob Wickman was traded, has allowed only five earned runs in 36 innings. "I'm the interim closer right now and I'm enjoying it," Leskanic said. "I don't know how long I'll be the closer, but I'm not taking anything for granted. It's a definite honor for these guys to have enough confidence in me to close a game out." Sheffield retook the major league home run lead with his 35th, and Shawn Green tied the score with his 19th leading off the seventh against D'Amico, the July NL pitcher of the month. The homers offset Jenkins' homers against Chan Ho Park, who gave up six hits and struck out eight in six innings. D'Amico, 5-0 in six starts last month, surrendered five hits in eight innings with a career-high eight strikeouts. Jenkins opened the scoring with two out in the first. He led off the sixth with another shot, giving him his second career multihomer game. He also singled in the seventh. Jenkins, who has hit five of his 21 home runs in the last six games, is benefiting from having Richie Sexson -- acquired in the Wickman deal -- batting behind him. "Just having the presence of a 30-homer, 100-RBI guy in your lineup, obviously it's going to give you some protection," Jenkins said. "Early in the year, it was just me and Bernie (Jeromy Bernitz) back-to-back, so they could just bring a lefty in there and pitch to both of us. But now with a big righty hitter in there, it's definitely helping our team." Sheffield, homered for the first time in 48 career at-bats against the Brewers to tie it 1-1 in the fourth. He is one homer ahead of Barry Bonds, and Sheffield has one more than he hit last season. It also ended a season-worst homerless drought of 33 at-bats since homering July 24 at Colorado. Game notesMarquis Grissom's fifth-inning single was his 100th career hit against Los Angeles. ... Sheffield hit his first 21 homers for Milwaukee between 1988 and 1991. He hit 33 the following season for San Diego. ... Sheffield, who leads the Dodgers in homers, RBIs and batting average, could become the fourth player to lead them in all three categories over a full season since the franchise moved to Los Angeles in 1958. The others were Steve Garvey, Pedro Guerrero and Mike Piazza. | ALSO SEE Baseball Scoreboard Milwaukee Clubhouse Los Angeles Clubhouse RECAPS Kansas City 7 Boston 5
Milwaukee 4
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