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Dodgers wake up late to pound Angels
BY BILL PLUNKETT
The Orange County Register
Posted on Sat, May. 20, 2006
LOS ANGELES - This Freeway Series better come with a breakdown lane, because the wheels have come off the Angels.
A strong five innings from Kevin Gregg deteriorated into yet another loss as the Dodgers scored seven runs in their final three at-bats to beat the Angels, 8-4, on Saturday afternoon at Dodger Stadium.
Coming on the heels of Friday's 16-3 drubbing, the Angels have lost four consecutive games by a total score of 35-11. Losses in 16 of their past 21 leave them with fewer victories (17) than all but one American League team, the Kansas City Royals, and their worst 43-game start (17-26) since the 1988 season.
"We're going to snap out of it," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "There is nobody around here that doesn't believe it. We have to play better and we will."
Not that long ago, Dodgers manager Grady Little was making similar pronouncements about his team.
The Dodgers started the month in the throes of a season-high five-game losing streak but have won 11 of their past 14 to reach three games over .500 (23-20) for the first time.
"It's a lot more fun than it was earlier. That's obvious," Dodgers starter Brett Tomko said of the May turnaround.
"We always knew we had a good team. It was just a matter of getting everybody on a roll. I always said in spring training that it was going to be a matter of how our young players stepped in and played.
"The Nomars, the (Jeff) Kents, those guys - you know what you're going to get year in and year out. It's how the young guys play when they have to fill in that allows you to win a division."
The Angels and Dodgers are two sides of the same coin, in that respect.
The Angels have asked much of young players like Jeff Mathis, Casey Kotchman and Dallas McPherson and gotten little.
"It's safe to say the club we have right now is not the club that we need out there," Scioscia said Saturday.
The Dodgers, meanwhile, have thrived while incorporating a handful of young players.
Rookie Willy Aybar struck the biggest blow Saturday, a three-run home run off Gregg that tied the score, 4-4, in the sixth inning.
"It was a good pitch. He happened to go down and put some good wood on it," Gregg said of the 0-and-2 sinker that Aybar golfed off his shoetops and hooked just inside the left-field foul pole. "I don't think he could hit it again. I'll throw it again if I get in that situation. I like my chances."
An inning later, Scot Shields replaced Gregg and faced J.D. Drew to lead off the seventh. Drew was given the day off by Little but made the most of his limited work day when he was called on to pinch hit. Drew drove a 1-and-2 slider from Shields over the fence for a solo home run.
While the Dodgers' new interim solution to their bullpen instability closed things out (Danys Baez in the eighth and Takashi Saito in the ninth), the Dodgers scored three more runs in the eighth off right-hander Jason Bulger in his Angels debut.
