| In the interest of speed and timeliness, this story is fed directly from the Associated Press newswire and may contain spelling or grammatical errors. |
Brewers 4, Dodgers 3
Monday June 02, 2003LOS ANGELES (AP) The Milwaukee Brewers turned things around in a week against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Richie Sexson hit a tiebreaking homer and Mike DeJean pitched a hitless ninth for his second save of the weekend as the Brewers beat the Dodgers 4-3 on Sunday to win consecutive road series.
Sexson hit his second tiebreaking homer in three days to help Milwaukee take two of three from Los Angeles, a week after the Dodgers swept the Brewers in a three-game set at Miller Park.
``Anytime you can beat a team like that two out of three, it's a positive for us,'' said Sexson, who also had a sacrifice fly. ``We knew we played poorly at home against them.''
DeJean recorded his 12th save in 15 attempts. He had 27 saves last year after spending his first five seasons in a setup role.
``It's fun for me to be able to go out there and be able to contribute,'' DeJean said. ``But aside from what I'm doing, the whole attitude of the team this year makes it so much fun. Everybody is just committed to playing good hard baseball and winning not just putting the product on the field and seeing what happens.''
DeJean has been impressing Milwaukee manager Ned Yost since spring training.
``You know how people say that first impressions count? Well, my first impression all spring was that he was lights out,'' Yost said. ``I've got so much confidence in him that anytime he gets out here, I just feel like he's going to get them out no matter what the situation is.
``Mike's got the makeup for it and he's got the pitches. He's got a good heavy sinker, a real nice split and a nice slider. So he's the total package for me.''
DeJean struck out two of the four batters he faced in the ninth in relief of Jayson Durocher (1-0).
Durocher earned his second big league win with 1 2-3 innings of hitless relief in his second appearance since arthroscopic surgery on his right elbow March 8.
Guillermo Mota (2-2), working his second inning after relieving starter Kazuhisa Ishii, surrendered Sexson's 17th homer in the seventh.
Ishii hit Scott Podsednik with a pitch to open the inning. Podsednik advanced two bases on Keith Ginter's single and scored on Sexson's sacrifice fly. Ginter stole second and came home on Brady Clark's two-out single.
The Dodgers tied it in the bottom half when Adrian Beltre fought off an inside pitch and fisted it into short right-center to drive in Jolbert Cabrera, who led off with a double.
Despite getting center fielder and leadoff hitter Dave Roberts back from the disabled list, the Dodgers lost for the fifth time in six games after a 10-game winning streak.
``We played so well for 10 games,'' Dodgers catcher Paul Lo Duca said. ``I think we sort of got into a happy place where we just thought we were going to keep winning. But the last six games we haven't played well offensively, defensively everything.''< ^Notes:@ Los Angeles starts interleague play Tuesday night against Kansas City, the first of 12 consecutive games and 18 of 24 against the AL Central. The only team the Dodgers won't face from that division this season is Minnesota the only one with a winning record. ... Brian Jordan, in his second game back after missing two with a bruised left hand, gave Los Angeles a 2-1 lead in the fourth with his first homer in 44 games since April 3 a two-run shot against Wayne Franklin.
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