Baseball Guru
04-06-2002, 05:04 AM
By Associated Press
April 6, 2002, 12:58 AM EST
LOS ANGELES -- Andy Ashby allowed one hit over seven innings in his first start in almost a year as the Los Angeles Dodgers routed the Colorado Rockies 9-0 Friday night for their first victory of the season.
Eric Karros was 3-for-4, including a three-run homer in the second that snapped a scoreless drought of 25 innings by the Dodgers. Shawn Green had a three-run double and Ashby drove in a run with a suicide squeeze bunt.
Omar Daal finished the combined one-hitter with two scoreless innings. It was the Dodgers' first one-hitter since Chan Ho Park and Mike Fetters combined to do it Aug. 29, 2000, at Milwaukee.
Ashby (1-0) threw 95 pitches, striking out five and walking two. The Rockies' only hit was Todd Zeile's clean ground single through the right side in the fifth inning.
Ashby, beginning the second year of a three-year, $22.5 million contract, pitched only 11 2-3 innings in two starts last April -- both victories -- before a torn flexor muscle in his right elbow ended his season and forced him to undergo surgery in June.
The Dodgers, outscored 24-2 in a season-opening three-game sweep by San Francisco, got all nine runs in the first four innings.
Right-hander Shawn Chacon (0-1) allowed eight runs, five hits and five walks in 3 2-3 innings, before Green greeted former Dodger Dennys Reyes with his bases-clearing double in the fourth and Brian Jordan followed with an RBI double.
Karros led off the five-run fourth with a double and beat Chacon's shovel-throw to the plate on Ashby's squeeze.
Green drew a leadoff walk in the second and advanced two bases on Chacon's wild pickoff throw. Adrian Beltre walked with one out and Karros followed with a drive to left-center on a 3-1 pitch for the Dodgers' first homer of the season -- and their first runs since the third inning on opening day.
Karros, whose chronic back problems last year resulted in the least productive of his 10 full major league seasons, had no homers in his final 21 games of 2001.
The Dodgers added a run in the third on a leadoff walk to Dave Roberts and a hit-and-run double by Cesar Izturis, who had three hits.
Notes:@ Rockies RF Larry Walker appeared in his 1,531st regular-season game in the majors, tying the record for Canadian-born players that was set by former Houston OF Terry Puhl. ... The Dodgers started a season with four straight losses only twice in the last 26 years -- 1987 (0-5) and 1998 (0-4). ... The last time the Dodgers were shut out in three consecutive games was during the 1966 World Series -- when Baltimore's Jim Palmer, Wally Bunker and Dave McNally completed a four-game sweep. Los Angeles hasn't been blanked in three straight regular-season games since April 23-25, 1966, by Ferguson Jenkins and Ken Holtzman of the Cubs and Larry Jaster of the Cardinals. ... Kazuhisa Ishii, the second Japanese-born pitcher in Dodgers history, makes his major league debut Saturday.
April 6, 2002, 12:58 AM EST
LOS ANGELES -- Andy Ashby allowed one hit over seven innings in his first start in almost a year as the Los Angeles Dodgers routed the Colorado Rockies 9-0 Friday night for their first victory of the season.
Eric Karros was 3-for-4, including a three-run homer in the second that snapped a scoreless drought of 25 innings by the Dodgers. Shawn Green had a three-run double and Ashby drove in a run with a suicide squeeze bunt.
Omar Daal finished the combined one-hitter with two scoreless innings. It was the Dodgers' first one-hitter since Chan Ho Park and Mike Fetters combined to do it Aug. 29, 2000, at Milwaukee.
Ashby (1-0) threw 95 pitches, striking out five and walking two. The Rockies' only hit was Todd Zeile's clean ground single through the right side in the fifth inning.
Ashby, beginning the second year of a three-year, $22.5 million contract, pitched only 11 2-3 innings in two starts last April -- both victories -- before a torn flexor muscle in his right elbow ended his season and forced him to undergo surgery in June.
The Dodgers, outscored 24-2 in a season-opening three-game sweep by San Francisco, got all nine runs in the first four innings.
Right-hander Shawn Chacon (0-1) allowed eight runs, five hits and five walks in 3 2-3 innings, before Green greeted former Dodger Dennys Reyes with his bases-clearing double in the fourth and Brian Jordan followed with an RBI double.
Karros led off the five-run fourth with a double and beat Chacon's shovel-throw to the plate on Ashby's squeeze.
Green drew a leadoff walk in the second and advanced two bases on Chacon's wild pickoff throw. Adrian Beltre walked with one out and Karros followed with a drive to left-center on a 3-1 pitch for the Dodgers' first homer of the season -- and their first runs since the third inning on opening day.
Karros, whose chronic back problems last year resulted in the least productive of his 10 full major league seasons, had no homers in his final 21 games of 2001.
The Dodgers added a run in the third on a leadoff walk to Dave Roberts and a hit-and-run double by Cesar Izturis, who had three hits.
Notes:@ Rockies RF Larry Walker appeared in his 1,531st regular-season game in the majors, tying the record for Canadian-born players that was set by former Houston OF Terry Puhl. ... The Dodgers started a season with four straight losses only twice in the last 26 years -- 1987 (0-5) and 1998 (0-4). ... The last time the Dodgers were shut out in three consecutive games was during the 1966 World Series -- when Baltimore's Jim Palmer, Wally Bunker and Dave McNally completed a four-game sweep. Los Angeles hasn't been blanked in three straight regular-season games since April 23-25, 1966, by Ferguson Jenkins and Ken Holtzman of the Cubs and Larry Jaster of the Cardinals. ... Kazuhisa Ishii, the second Japanese-born pitcher in Dodgers history, makes his major league debut Saturday.