|
Jae Seo
was a major reason why the
Los Angeles Dodgers
' starting pitching dominated the
San Diego Padres
this past weekend.
Seo looks for a second straight win over the Padres when the Dodgers play host to their NL West rivals on Wednesday in the
opener of a two-game set.
Los Angeles (12-15) won two of three at San Diego last weekend, with its starters posting a 0.95 ERA in the series. Seo (1-2,
5.70 ERA) led the way, giving up two hits over six innings in a 3-0 victory on Friday.
The right-hander had struggled before facing the Padres, going 0-2 with a 7.64 ERA and allowing five homers through his first
four starts.
''Jae pitched a heck of a game,'' Los Angeles manager Grady Little said. ''The location of his pitches is a simple thing for
that guy. He's not a guy who's going to blow anyone away with his velocity, so it makes his location that much more important.''
Seo outpitched
Chris Young
(2-2, 3.41), who will square off against him again. Young allowed one run and five hits over 6 2-3 innings in his second straight
loss.
The 6-foot-10 right-hander, who will make his first career start at Dodger Stadium, realizes it is difficult to face the same
team for the second straight outing.
''It's a good veteran lineup,'' Young said. ''I'm going to have to mix my pitches a little better to keep them off balance,
maybe pitch some guys inside more than I did in that game.''
The Dodgers have lost three straight for the first time this year after falling 10-8 at Arizona on Tuesday.
After scoring a total of 14 runs over its previous four games, Los Angeles broke out with 13 hits in the loss. Little shuffled
his lineup by flip-flopping the first two hitters -
Rafael Furcal
and
Kenny Lofton
- and dropping struggling J.D. Drew to No. 5.
Drew homered twice and recorded his first three-hit game of the season, and Lofton had two hits batting leadoff.
''I'm not a big advocate of repeating things that aren't working for us,'' Little said. ''When something is not working, I
don't fear change, a little bit of change, a little tinkering here and there. Hopefully this will make a difference.''
San Diego (11-15) is looking to extend its season-high winning streak to four games after completing a two-game sweep at San
Francisco with a 5-3 victory on Tuesday.
Mike Cameron
hit a two-run homer in the first inning and
Dave Roberts
scored twice for the Padres, who have scored 21 runs in their winning streak.
The Padres are 7-4 on the road, averaging 5.6 runs per game. They are 4-11 at home, averaging 2.8 runs.
San Diego is 2-0 in May, the month when it went a franchise-best 22-6 a year ago en route to the division title.
''Go hard for nine innings and hopefully, it's a great May,'' Padres manager
Bruce Bochy
said. ''If this is a good luck month for us, great.''
Right fielder
Brian Giles
has turned in three straight multihit efforts, going 7-for-12 with five runs scored.
''I'm close to really getting in a groove,'' Giles said. ''It's such a hard game. You've got to grind it out every day. Hopefully,
we can rattle some things off now.''
|
