MLB late game: Loney hits homer in 11th inning to lift Dodgers
James Loney homered leading off the 11th inning to lift the Los Angeles Dodgers to an 8-7 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday night.
Garciaparra had his first multihomer game in nearly six years and Matt Kemp also homered for the Dodgers, who won their second straight to pull into a first-place tie with the Diamondbacks.
"It's still early," Garciaparra said. "We have to focus on just winning ballgames."
Loney's home run off Doug Slaten (0-3) was the Dodgers' third solo shot over the final five innings and the club's season-high fourth of the game.
"You never know what to expect coming out of the break," said Dodgers manager Joe Torre.
Cory Wade (1-1) pitched the 10th for the Dodgers and one-time closer Jonathan Broxton, Los Angeles' eighth pitcher, came on in the 11th for his first save in six opportunities. He's filling in for injured closer Takashi Saito.
"They're still going to watch me," Broxton said. "That's why they're not calling me the closer."
Chris Young was 2-for-5 with a triple and two runs scored, Chad Tracy drove in a pair of runs and Conor Jackson was 3-for-5 with two walks for the Diamondbacks.
Young tripled into the right-field corner and scored in the third inning to put Arizona ahead 7-5, but the Los Angeles bullpen held the Diamondbacks scoreless on six hits over the final eight innings.
"When it gets to point where it does tonight, the 10th or 11th inning, the game can go to either team," Young said. "It's just a matter of who gets the big hit and tonight Loney did."
Garciaparra hit his second home run to lead off the sixth inning against reliever Yusmeiro Petit and pull the Dodgers to 7-6. Kemp then hit a one-out homer off Leo Rosales in the seventh to tie the game at 7.
"We got the bats going early, they got the bats going early," Kemp said. "It was a back and forth battle."
The teams combined for seven runs on nine hits, two walks and three errors in the first inning as the Diamondbacks took a 4-3 lead. Andre Ethier and Russell Martin had RBI doubles for Los Angeles while Tracy and Mark Reynolds had run-scoring singles for Arizona.
"Both teams swung the bats well the first couple innings and looked sloopy at times, but then tightened it up considerably," Arizona manager Bob Melvin said.
The Diamondbacks added two more runs in the second on an RBI double by Tracy and a run-scoring wild pitch by Dodgers starter Hiroki Kuroda to make it 6-3.
Recent comments
Nice to see the Dodgers in first but its still pretty sickening that...
LA native | July 19, 2008 at 2:18 p.m.
