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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Sports
Thursday, June 10, 1999
Dodgers 7, Rangers 2
LOS ANGELES (AP) — For one game, the key elements of a championship team
finally were in alignment for the struggling Los Angeles Dodgers.
Kevin Brown pitched eight solid innings Wednesday night en route to
a 7-2 victory over the Texas Rangers. Eric Karros provided the power with
a three-run homer, and leadoff man Eric Young had three hits and three
RBIs, including a two-run single that capped a six-run fourth inning.
"This is just what we needed," manager Davey Johnson said. "We got a
big spurt, which showed we can still do it. I almost forgot we could do
it."
After Jose Vizcaino led off the fourth with a scorching liner to center
that was caught, the next six batters reached base against Mark Clark (3-5).
Gary Sheffield singled, Raul Mondesi walked and Karros drove his eighth
home run halfway up the pavilion seats in left-center to end a homerless
drought of 44 at-bats.
Angel Pena singled home another run, and Young made it 6-0 with a two-run
single following Brown's sacrifice.
One of the keys to the offensive outburst was the walk to Mondesi, whose
29 bases on balls in the cleanup spot are as many as Young has in the leadoff
role. Mondesi needs only one more walk to match his entire total for last
season, when he played in 148 games.
"Everybody's got to get on base, instead of trying to do it all by themselves,"
Karros said. "Everybody's just got to worry about getting down to first
base, and we'll be all right. That goes for the top of the lineup as well
as the middle of the lineup."
Young, who has missed nine of the Dodgers' first 58 games because of
assorted nagging injuries, has seven hits in 13 at-bats following his 0-for-16
drought.
"He's always been a hitter," Rangers center fielder Tom Goodwin said.
"Regardless of what kind of slump he goes into, he's always going to come
out of it swinging."
Los Angeles is going to need a lot more games like this to catch the
upstart Arizona Diamondbacks, who lead them by five games in the NL West.
It might not seem like much of a deficit, but the Dodgers' pitching and
hitting both have been inconsistent.
"It's been a collective lull," Karros said. "We just haven't gotten
the big hit and we haven't made the big pitch. We've had some instances
where we had a lead late in the game and haven't been able to hold them.
"We've had other games where we've held the other club to one or two
runs and the offense puts up one run or none. So it's been a collective
effort. You can't really single out any one thing," Karros said.
Brown (7-3) improved his home record to 5-0. He struck out six and allowed
five hits, including a two-run single by Rusty Greer in the fifth inning
after being staked to the 6-0 lead.
"I'll take that anytime," the right-hander said following the latest
dividend on his seven-year, $105 million contract. "It gives you breathing
room and it's much appreciated against a team like that. They throw thunder
out there. I was behind on the counts a lot, but I had great command and
was hitting my spots."
Pecos Enterprise
York M. "Smokey" Briggs, Publisher
Division of Buckner News Alliance, Inc.
324 S. Cedar St., Pecos, TX 79772
Phone 915-445-5475, FAX 915-445-4321
e-mail news@pecos.net
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Copyright 1999 by Pecos Enterprise
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