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By Jon Weisman
He hit the Dodgers’ most dramatic home run of 2013, and now he has the Dodgers’ first home run of Spring Training 2014.
Juan Uribe’s high, high fly ball to left field pierced the sky before just clearing the left-field fence in the fourth inning of the Dodgers’ 4-3 victory over Arizona at Camelback Ranch. The homer by the famed Uribear tied the game at 2, two innings after Uribe’s soft bloop single scored Adrian Gonzalez with the Dodgers’ first run.
Miguel Rojas spearheaded the Dodgers’ go-ahead rally in the bottom of the seventh, leading off with a sharp single to center and going to second on a wild pitch. After Nick Buss was hit by a pitch, fellow reserve candidate Brendan Harris singled home Rojas.
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Alex Guerrero then hit a blooper to short left-center (ruled a single and an error) with two out in the bottom of the eighth inning to bring home one more run.
For the second day in a row, a Dodger reliever with an outside chance of making the active roster struck out the side. Today, it was Daniel Moskos, who fanned Mike Jacobs, Matt Tuiasosopo and Jake Lamb. But the top relief performance of the day came from Red Patterson, who retired all seven batters he faced, striking out two.
Sam Demel, converted third baseman Pedro Baez and Jarret Martin also pitched shutout innings. Carlos Frias would have as well, but with two out and a runner on third in the bottom of the ninth, Buss lost his grip at the last moment of a diving catch attempt that would have ended the game, but instead went for an RBI double.
Scott Van Slyke then succeeded with a diving catch in right field to prevent the tying run from scoring and wrap things up.
Chris Withrow, pressed into early action thanks to the calfinated Zack Greinke, allowed two runs on two hits and three walks while striking out one. He ended up throwing 42 pitches in his 1 1/3 innings.
Andre Ethier joined Uribe and Guerrero in the two-hit club.
oldbrooklynfan
Good to see Uribe and Ethier with their hitting shoes on. Its also good to see we have some good help on the farm. A lot of players I didn’t know we had.