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Tuesday, May 9 9:35pm ET
Game starts and ends with home run | |||||
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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
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GAME LOG
PHOENIX (AP) -- For someone who hasn't had a lot of game-winning hits, Arizona's Damian Miller knows how to downplay them. "It's just another hit in a baseball game," Miller said Tuesday night after his 12th-inning grand slam off Orel Hershiser led Arizona over the Dodgers 11-7. "Yeah, it's dramatic," said Miller, who earlier hit a solo homer. "If I'd done it in the fourth inning, nobody probably would have cared." Todd Hollandsworth, who homered leading off the game, had put the Dodgers ahead in the 12th against Vincente Padilla (1-0) with an RBI grounder. Hershiser (1-2), trying for what would have been his first save since Game 4 of the 1988 NL championship series, allowed a single to Jay Bell leading off the 12th and walked Luis Gonzalez. Erubiel Durazo loaded the bases with a single, and Steve Finley's sacrifice fly to shallow left tied it, with Jay Bell sliding home ahead of Gary Sheffield's throw. "It's more difficult than I thought," Hershiser said of the difference between starting and closing. "It's tough to get a rhythm without the innings." Hershiser hit pinch-hitter Kelly Stinnett with a pitch, loading the bases for Miller, who hit a 397-foot drive into the left-field seats for his third career slam. It was the Dodgers' third straight loss and second in extra innings in a three-day span. "We hung in there," manager Davey Johnson said. "You hate to lose, and you hate to lose that way." It was the eighth time since 1990, and the second time this season, a major league game began and ended with a home run. Jon Nunnally of the Mets and Jeff Kent of the Giants did it May 3 in New York's 8-5, 11-inning loss at San Francisco. Sheffield also homered for Los Angeles, which wasted a 6-5 lead when Danny Klassen doubled off Jeff Shaw with one out in the ninth, advanced on Todd Hundley's passed ball and scored on Andy Fox's single. Gonzalez hit a two-run homer for Arizona, which won its sixth straight. Dodgers starter Carlos Perez allowed three runs and six hits in seven innings, while Arizona starter Armando Reynoso was pounded for six runs and seven hits in 4 1/3 innings. Arizona right fielder fielder Travis Lee threw out Shawn Green at the plate to end the fifth inning, and Klassen ended the seventh when he fielded a hard grounder by Eric Karros with the bases loaded, stepped on third for the force and threw to first for a double play. Hollandsworth and Sheffield homered in the first, and the Dodgers made it 3-0 on Adrian Beltre's RBI single. Gonzalez closed the gap with his 418-foot drive into the right field bleachers in the bottom half, and Miller's homer tied it in the second. Los Angeles went ahead 5-3 in the third on Karros' sacrifice fly and Hundley's RBI single past a diving Greg Colbrunn at first. Hundley had another RBI single in the fifth. Steve Finley hit a two-run single in the eighth off Terry Adams, cutting the Dodgers' lead to 6-5. "Every team has games that you steal during the year and you have games you lose that you should have won," Finley said. "This is one we stole. Game notesOther games since 1990 that started and ended with homers: 1990, Astros at Reds (Eric Yelding/Barry Larkin); 1991, Athletics at Red Sox (Rickey Henderson/Jack Clark); 1993, Phillies at Cubs (Lenny Dykstra/Rick Wilkins); 1995, Pirates at Padres (Al Martin/Bip Roberts); 1995, A's at Indians (Henderson/Manny Ramirez); and 1999, White Sox at Orioles (Ray Durham/Harold Baines). ... Hollandsworth has three of the Dodgers' four leadoff homers. ... Mark Grudzielanek, who had been hitting .500 in May, was 0-for-7 in the series until his leadoff double in the fifth inning. ... Reynoso popped up in his only at-bat, ending a four-game stretch in which the Diamondbacks starting pitchers were 6-for-10 at the plate with three RBIs. ... Arizona closer Matt Mantei, on the disabled list because of soreness in his shoulder, is scheduled to throw in the bullpen Wednesday night and pitch in a simulated game Friday at San Diego. ... Arizona reliever Byung-Hyun Kim struck out his first batter, Karros, extending his team-record strikeout streak to eight before Hundley grounded out. | ALSO SEE Baseball Scoreboard Los Angeles Clubhouse Arizona Clubhouse RECAPS Chi. White Sox 6 Boston 0
Arizona 11
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