Dodger Loss Is First-Case Scenario

The Milwaukee Brewers jumped on the Dodgers early and held on late Friday night, defeating them, 7-5, at Dodger Stadium.

Carlos Lee’s first-inning grand slam, his team-leading 14th home run, against starter Jeff Weaver quickly gave the Brewers a four-run lead before many in the crowd of 41,528 were seated, and they seemingly took command, 7-2, on Bill Hall’s three-run homer in the eighth against Giovanni Carrara.

The Dodgers, however, rallied in their half of the inning, scoring three runs against the Brewer bullpen.

Julio Santana, who pitched a scoreless seventh in relief of starter Chris Capuano, walked J.D. Drew and Jeff Kent to start the inning, and they advanced on his wild pitch. After Olmedo Saenz struck out with runners on the corners, Jayson Werth singled to right, driving in Drew and sending Kent to third.

Enter Ricky Bottalico.

Bottalico gave up a run-scoring single to Antonio Perez, cutting the lead to 7-4. On another wild pitch, Werth went from second to third and scored on second baseman Hall’s throwing error.

The error occurred after Jason Phillips fouled out, and Hall’s throw to the plate hit Phillips on the batting helmet while he walked in foul ground. Perez advanced to second on pinch-hitter Ricky Ledee’s single, and Cesar Iztruis grounded out to end the inning.

Weaver (5-5) settled in and pitched well after the first inning, retiring 21 of 24 without giving up a hit, until he was removed for a pinch-hitter in the seventh. The right-hander had seven strikeouts and three walks while throwing 120 pitches (77 strikes).

“For Jeff Weaver to regroup and pitch the way he did through seven innings was terrific,” Manager Jim Tracy said. “They don’t get a hit in the next six innings after the grand slam, and we’re in the game.

“Unfortunately, we couldn’t make a pitch at a time when we needed one” in the eighth inning.

That inning loomed especially large in the manager’s view.

“We’ve been talking about the fact that we’ve given up a lot of home runs, but a number of the home runs that have occurred in situations like that are on two-strike pitches,” he said. “The pitch that Billy Hall hit out of the ballpark was elevated and sitting in the middle of the plate. They hit those balls out of the ballpark.

“It simply boils down to an opportunity to put that inning down. I think we would have had a pretty good shot at winning the ballgame if we did.”

Ultimately, though, Weaver’s first-inning problems were too much for him and the Dodgers (27-27) to overcome in his third loss in four starts.

“They got to me in the first, we couldn’t get any runs early to get back into the game, they extend the lead in the eighth and that was it,” Weaver said. “You can’t let the game get out of reach, and I had already given up four runs in the first.”

Capuano (5-4) had some shaky moments in the fourth, loading the bases with none out and hitting Perez to force in the Dodgers’ first run, but the Dodgers wasted chances to pull closer.

Saenz hit his seventh homer leading off the sixth but Capuano pitched well overall, giving up five hits and striking out eight in six innings.

Derrick Turnbow pitched the ninth for his eighth save, nailing down a victory in which the Brewers managed only six hits.

“We only hit two balls hard all night,” Milwaukee Manager Ned Yost said. “But the two balls we did hit accounted for quite a lot.”