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Dodgers survive shaky ninth to avoid sweep

Apr 5, 2007 - 5:50 AM MILWAUKEE (Ticker) -- Olmedo Saenz delivered a two-run double in the eighth inning and Jason Schmidt won his debut after some shaky relief pitching as the Los Angeles Dodgers posted a 5-4 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers.

Nomar Garciaparra and Jeff Kent drove in runs for the Dodgers, who avoided a three-game series sweep.

After Schmidt (1-0) labored through five innings, allowing a run and three hits on 95 pitches, Los Angeles was clinging to a 2-1 lead until Milwaukee reliever Carlos Villanueva walked the bases loaded in the eighth.

Saenz followed with a double off Elmer Dessens into the left-center field gap.

"In that situation, I still have to put a good swing on it. I don't try to do too much," Saenz said. "We needed to get the first win out of the way. There's a lot of baseball left but early in the season, there's a lot of first things: first ground ball, first at-bat. We got the first (win) out of the way and now we can go and play baseball."

Matt Kemp then hit a sacrifice fly for a 5-1 lead.

Saenz was familiar with his former teammate Dessens, who spent the last two seasons with the Dodgers before being traded to Milwaukee for OF Brady Clark on March 26.

"It was a one-on-one matchup," Dodgers manager Grady Little said. "I'm sure Olmedo's knowledge of Elmer helped out there."

That insurance proved vital, as Craig Counsell drilled a two-run double off Takashi Saito in the eighth inning and J.J.Hardy led off the ninth with a homer. Prince Fielder then doubled before the Japanese closer regrouped and retired the next three hitters for his first save.

"Today was a longer outing than normal," Saito said through an interpreter. "I wasn't exactly the sharpest, but the results are we won the game. It was the Dodgers first win, it was also my first appearance. It was good to get out there in a pressure situation. The result was we won even though my pitching line wasn't the best today."

Milwaukee starter Jeff Suppan (0-1) pitched well in his debut, allowing two runs and seven hits in seven innings.

"I was stubborn with my game plan and I continued to try to make my pitches," Suppan said. "That's what I stuck with. Later in the game, I was able to execute those pitches which led to some quicker innings."

The Brewers left 12 men on base, including seven in scoring position. In the seventh, Rickie Weeks hit a one-out triple with the Brewers trailing, 2-1, but was retired when Hardy hit a ground ball to shortstop Ramon Martinez, who threw a strike to catcher Russell Martin to retire Weeks.

"He smashed it," Yost said. "You can't really control where it goes; he just hit it right at him. That's what you're looking to do. You're looking to drive in the run and tie the ball game up and hopefully have another runner on base and start a big inning."

Schmidt, making his Dodger debut, improved to 7-4 with a 3.16 ERA vs. the Brewers and 4-1 with a 1.62 ERA in five starts at Miller Park.

"It's nice to get it out of the way," Schmidt said. "You go to a new team, you want to go out and produce. We ended up losing the first two games. There's always incentive to pitch with a little bit more, and try to get this team its first win. I would have loved to go seven, eight innings, but it didn't work out that way. The bullpen, they were stretched a little thin and they did a hell of a job. They won that ball game."