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Kuo plays key role as Dodgers beat Mets
By Tony Jackson, Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: 05/07/2008 01:39:04 AM PDT
Hong-Chih Kuo isn't the type to complain much.
Complaining isn't what got the cherub-faced left-hander through a
year-long rehabilitation after he blew out his elbow just three innings
into his pro career, and it isn't what got him through a second rehab
after he blew it out again less than three years later. All before he had
even gotten close enough to the major leagues to smell the meal money.
Once he finally got there, Kuo didn't figure to complain about being
shuttled back and forth between the rotation and the bullpen, either.
And his dutiful acceptance of one of baseball's least glamorous roles
never came in more handy for the Dodgers than it did on Tuesday night,
when they rode it to a 5-4 victory - their 10th in their past 11 games -
over the New York Mets in front of 43,927 at Dodger Stadium.
With $35.3 million Japanese import Hiroki Kuroda having been
nickeled-and-dimed right out of the game by a flurry of Mets singles that
sent him to the clubhouse when there were two outs in the fourth inning,
Kuo trotted in from the Dodgers' bullpen and proceeded to dominate. He got
the Dodgers through the seventh without allowing a run or a hit, matching
his career high of eight strikeouts in the process.
In the meantime, rookie third baseman Blake DeWitt delivered his second
career home run - his second in the past two evenings - in the bottom of
the fifth, a two-run shot that clanged off the out-of-town scoreboard in
right field and caromed
to a spot at least 75 feet away from any Mets outfielder. It was the first
inside-the-parker by a Dodger since Dave Roberts hit one Aug. 9, 2003, and
it turned a 4-3 deficit into a 5-4 lead.
It also turned Kuo into a hero, for the second time in the past four
games.
"He came in there and did exactly what he was supposed to do and more,"
DeWitt said. "He pitched great, and it gave a lift to everybody."
Kuo's injury problems didn't end with his two Tommy John surgeries in the
minors. He began and ended last season on the disabled list, spending a
total of four months there with injuries to both his shoulder and elbow,
and even the two months he was active were interrupted by a two-week stint
in the minors.
Although he has made three starts this season, Kuo's primary role has
become coming out of the bullpen and saving the Dodgers' bacon when their
starter doesn't last long, and he has become remarkably adept at it.
On Saturday night at Colorado, he relieved a shaky Esteban Loaiza with one
out in the third and immediately gave up a two-run homer to Brad Hawpe,
erasing what was left of a 6-0 lead. But Kuo stemmed the tide from there,
the Dodgers exploded in the late innings against the Rockies' bullpen, and
both Kuo and the Dodgers got away with a win.
This time, Kuo inherited a 4-3 deficit, as well as a sticky, two-on,
one-out mess, from Kuroda in the fourth. He got out of it by blowing away
Carlos Delgado and Angel Pagan, then got out of his own, identical jam an
inning later by freezing Jose Reyes and Ryan Church.
Kuo didn't allow another baserunner. More importantly, the Dodgers didn't
need another reliever until the eighth inning, when they were able to turn
the game over to back-end relievers Jonathan Broxton and Takashi Saito.
"I think right now, just the way (Kuo) feels physically is exciting to
him," Dodgers manager Joe Torre said. "I haven't been here very long, but
(pitching coach Rick) Honeycutt was talking about the way the ball was
coming out of his hand and how it's something we need to take advantage
of. Right from the first time I met this young man, it was like, 'I'll do
whatever it takes to help this ballclub.'
"If you tell him he is going to start, he gives you the same expression he
gives you when you say you're putting him back in the bullpen."
The second-place Dodgers (19-14), who remained three games behind
division-leading Arizona in the National League West, won't need a fifth
starter again until May 17 at the Angels. Whoever it ends up being, it
isn't likely to be Kuo, no matter how well he pitches.
"No," Torre said. "That second left-hander in the bullpen ... that's
important."
Somehow, you get the feeling Kuo (2-1) won't mind.
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