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Monday, Sep. 18 10:10pm ET
Elster takes Swindell deep for game-winner | |||||
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GAME LOG
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Kevin Elster, a veteran of 10 major league seasons with six teams, still finds it exciting to come up with a big hit. Elster hit a two-out, pinch-hit homer in the ninth inning Monday night to give the Los Angeles Dodgers a 2-1 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks. "That never gets old," said Elster, whose homer was his 13th. "It's the best. It's like the 18th hole -- if you've played a terrible round but you get a birdie on the 18th, it brings you back." Batting for Alex Cora, Elster drove a 1-1 pitch from Greg Swindell (2-6) over the fence in left. Swindell, who started the ninth, was the fourth Arizona pitcher. Jeff Shaw (3-4) pitched the ninth for Los Angeles, which kept Arizona five games behind New York, the NL wild card leader. "Any loss is difficult right now," Swindell said. "It doesn't matter if it ends like that or we get blown out. We knew what happened earlier in the day (the Mets lost to Atlanta), so if we lose, it's not good." The Dodgers' Kevin Brown allowed six hits in seven shutout innings with eight strikeouts and one walk. Manager Davey Johnson said Brown felt some pain in his neck, thus the decision to pinch-hit for him in the seventh. "Brownie pitched a heck of a ballgame, had a low pitch count, but was having some trouble with his neck," Johnson said. Brown has held teams to fewer than two earned runs in 13 of 31 starts this season, but got no-decisions in six of those. He is 6-1 in the others. He has been particularly effective against Arizona, giving up fewer than three earned runs in nine of 10 career starts. But seven of those also resulted in no-decisions, and he remained 3-0 against the Diamondbacks. Arizona's Armando Reynoso gave up one run and four hits in six innings, struck out three and walked two. He is 0-4 in his last six starts since beating Philadelphia on Aug. 16. Game notesThe game was the first on the Diamondbacks' longest road trip of the year. They play three in Los Angeles, five in San Francisco and four at Colorado, including one makeup game at San Francisco and another at Denver. ... The Dodgers have five players with 20 or more homers for the first time since 1979. Gary Sheffield has 41, Eric Karros 30, Shawn Green 24, Todd Hundley 23 and Adrian Beltre 20. The only other time the Dodgers had five players with 20 or more was when Ron Cey, Steve Garvey and Davey Lopes hit 28 homers each, Dusty Baker hit 23 and Joe Ferguson 20. | ALSO SEE Baseball Scoreboard Arizona Clubhouse Los Angeles Clubhouse RECAPS Oakland 12 Baltimore 3
Los Angeles 2
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