New York, NY (Sports Network) - Outfielder Shawn Green, a 15-year major league veteran most recently with the New York Mets, has reportedly announced his retirement.
Green, who spent the past season and a half with the Mets, told the New York Post he had planned on retiring once his contract was up. In 2007, the 35-year old hit .291 with 10 home runs and 46 RBI in 130 games, starting 107 games in New York's outfield.
The left-handed Green was a career .283 hitter, totaling 328 home runs and driving in 1,070 runs in stints with the Blue Jays, Dodgers, Diamondbacks and Mets. Four times in his career he clubbed more than 30 homers, including the 1999 seasons with Toronto, when he hit .309, smacked 42 home runs and drove in 123 runs.
He hit a foul home run on a cutter and took ball three, all steps in becoming a hero for a night. He was confident he had properly measured his man, Cardinals reliever Russ Springer. Another fastball was in the offing, Green was certain. And when he swung at it, he got the measure of the man and became the Met of the moment.
It's an old baseball phrase -- "measuring the pitcher." Mel Allen used it when Yogi Berra was pulling home runs foul. And that was what Green had done before he hit the skyscraping homer that turned an extended evening into a happy ending.
He had gathered as much vital information as he could about Springer, the Cardinals' third pitcher, and he used it against him. As the Mets' 34th batter, Green produced their third hit and knocked over the first domino. A run begat a 2-1, 11-inning victory, which begat a four-game winning streak, which begat more joy in a clubhouse of a seemingly back-on-track division leader.
"He knew what he was doing up there. You could tell," Paul Lo Duca said, some 40 minutes after Green had made his most dramatic contribution to a victory since joining the Mets in August. It didn't quite measure up to Jason Giambi's grand slam in the rain. But it did reinforce Green's image as a factor, a component of the Mets.
"It felt great to do that," he said, "to deliver the big hit. I was just tryng to drive it. I hadn't pulled one like that in a long time. It felt as good as going deep can feel."
The home run was his seventh and the Mets' second of the game. Rookie Carlos Gomez had hit one in the third inning, following his own foul home run against new Cardinals starter Mike Maroth. He had measured Maroth.
Green's was the Mets' second final-pitch home run this season -- Carlos Delgado provided the first -- aand the second final-pitch home run of his career. The first had come six years and one team earlier. The Mets have won in the final at-bat 11 times this season, twice in their three most recent games.
They are reverting to what they were early in the season -- a good team that gets better as the game goes longer.
Billy Wagner already had that impression before Green struck Monday night and before David Wright's double and Ramon Castro's 60-yard dash against the A's in the ninth inning Saturday night.
"There's something here in this park," Wagner said. "Night games, and especially extra-inning games at night -- you feel we're going to win. I felt it when we used to come in here. I mean, it's not legendary, like the ghosts of Yankee Sradium, but I feel it now. The longer it goes, the more a game belongs to us."
This one, the Mets' fourth victory in six extra-inning games, reached the 11th in part because Wagner and his three fellow relievers were brilliant after starter Jorge Sosa had pitched effectively -- one run on six hits -- for six innings. With a two-out help from Pedro Feliciano, Joe Smith extricated himself from self-made peril in the seventh. He departed with the bases loaded, and Feliciano retired Mets nemesis Scott Spiezio on a rocket that would have had to go through the middle of Feliciano's body to go through the middle.
"Straight Patrick Roy," Lo Duca said. "He didn't put his body in front of it. He didn't have to. It was right there, but he made no attempt to get out of the way. He decided the ball wasn't getting through."
Feliciano pitched a clean eighth, and Wagner blitzed through the ninth and 10th -- six batters, six outs, three on swinging third strikes. There was no measuring Wagner.
Aaron Heilman pitched the 11th, striking out the Cardinals' last two batters with a runner in first. He became the winning pitcher in the Mets' fourth victory in four games against the Cardinals this season when Green struck. No reliever in the game has as many victories as Heilman (6-4).
As gallant as Green had been, the more critical aspect of this victory was the relief pitching -- five innings, four baserunners, one of them deliberately put on base. In the bigger picture, that was the bigger bonus. A dominating bullpen can have more impact than any isolated home run. On this night, the Mets had both and the measure of the Cardinals.
Randolph called them "atrocious numbers."
But the manager also had input from his regular first baseman, who, according to Randolph, said, "If you're thinking about giving me a day off, this would be a good time."
Randolph also noted that the Mets have no days off until the All-Star break and that Delgado had played almost every game this season. Entering Sunday, only Jose Reyes (72 games) and David Wright (71) had started more games than Delgado (69, one as a designated hitter).
Could there have been another reason? Defense?
Delgado hasn't played his position particularly well this season. He committed his fourth error on Saturday night and didn't handle a throw on a different play that was scored a base hit. And on a few occasions this season, he has moved too far to his right in pursuit of a ground ball and essentially interfered with the play. In other situations, he hasn't pursued ground balls that appeared to be within his range.
Randolph didn't mention his first baseman's defense on Saturday night or Sunday, when he acknowledged that the Mets had played sloppily.
Whatever the reason, Randolph started Shawn Green at first base on Sunday, giving the outfielder his first start at first base as a member of the Mets and his first since last Aug. 16. Damion Easley took Green's place in right field, making his sixth big-league start at the position. Because of a sore right knee, Julio Franco, who has started four games at first in place of Delgado, did not start on Sunday.
Green wasn't necessarily well-prepared for the assignment. His first baseman's mitt was oiled, but he wasn't.
"I haven't taken any ground balls," he said.
But the Mets' defense may have been enhanced nonetheless. The first baseman with the longest errorless streak in the National League through Saturday was Green, with 67 games.
Green was still waiting for a boot to be delivered to the Mets so that he could restrict the movement in his right foot. He said he woke up several times during the night and felt it throbbing.
Asked about his prospect of returning to play soon, Green said, "Honestly, I don't know. The doctor (Erol Yoldis, an orthopedic surgeon contracted by the Marlins) sounded like it could be anywhere from a few days to a month. I think I'll have a better idea when we get back to New York and we can do a little more testing."
Green hopes to have a bone scan done to help determine if he will be play to play with the injury.
It is important to Green to avoid the disabled list, because in 12-plus Major League seasons he has never had to be on it. The closest he came was in 1999 with Toronto, when he suffered a broken left wrist, yet was out just 13 days, avoiding the DL.
"I was lucky then, maybe I'll be lucky now," Green said softly.
Said manager Willie Randolph: "That's pretty good to play as long as he has and not been on the DL. Hopefully he can keep that record intact."
Green sensed something was amiss after he fouled a pitch off the foot in Friday night's fifth inning. He stayed in the game, but let Randolph know that he didn't feel 100 percent.
He simply said to Randolph, "I'm not running too good, so keep that in mind."
Still, Green was able to hang in there long enough to participate in the Mets' five-run ninth inning rally. He scored a run, then was replaced for defensive purposes in the bottom of the ninth by Carlos Gomez.
"It got worse as the game went on," said Green, who is hitting .314. "I was praying the game wouldn't go to extra innings. I really was."
Randolph has decided against making a quick decision. He said he may know more on Tuesday, once Green can do further testing.
"We'll see what kind of pain he can tolerate," the manager said. "If it's a small fracture, it could possibly be something that's played with, depending on how sore and painful it is."
Randolph said the injury may be less inhibiting than a hamstring pull, which can get worse unless nurtured. "But we're not going to put him out there if he can't play the game."
Left fielder Moises Alou, who has been out since May 13 with a strained left quadriceps muscle, is eligible to return on Tuesday. But Randolph isn't counting on having Alou activated immediately.
"There's no guarantee that he'll be back on that date," Randolph said. "I talked with him and he wants to make sure he's 100 percent when he gets back out there. We'll get him on the base paths and give him a good test first. Maybe that means he'll be back Thursday or Friday."
In the interim, it appeared that rookie Carlos Gomez would get the bulk of Green's playing time. Gomez was in Saturday night's lineup, but came up limping (left leg) after his RBI groundout in the second inning and was replaced in the lineup.
"I had to do it, right?" he asked, second-guessing his own submission to the powerful peer pressure that existed before the Tuesday trimming. "It's not very good, is it?"
When Green returned to the team hotel Tuesday, his wife, Lindsay, had been forewarned. Her reaction: "A painful laugh," he said.
By Wednesday morning, she had become more accustomed to the change. But she spoke some words her husband found ominous: "You look more European now. We'll have to change your wardrobe."
And Green said, "She wasn't kidding."
They formed a bond growing up together in a Blue Jays organization that was fresh off two consecutive championships, and the pair now may be on a path that could take them to a World Series.
Delgado and Green were September callups with the Blue Jays in 1993 and got a taste of what playing for a title is all about, but neither was on the World Series roster. Except for Green's appearance in the 2004 Division Series with the Dodgers, postseason play has been elusive for the long-time friends who were rejoined Aug. 22 when the Mets acquired Green in a trade from the Diamondbacks.
Not surprisingly, Mets general manager Omar Minaya consulted with Delgado during the trade talks for Green, who had a no-trade clause, but was willing to wave it for a chance to play meaningful games in October.
"They asked me what kind of guy he was," Delgado said. "I told them he was a good guy, a very solid individual, a good player. I couldn't lie about that. I wanted to, but I couldn't. Right now, I'm in the process of putting him up for a couple of nights. He's crashing, but it's OK."
Such ribbing is part of the friendship between this somewhat odd couple. They were born within six months of each other in 1972, but grew up in vastly different surroundings. Delgado is from Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, where he continues to live in the offseason. Green was born in Illinois, but moved with his family as a child to Southern California and makes his home now in Irvine. Delgado came from a Latin culture and Green a Jewish culture. Other than that, they're very much alike.
"I think we kind of matched well together," Green said. "I mean, he's like a big brother to me. I've learned a lot from him, a lot about how to play the game, watching him and talking to him. Off the field, we have similar interests. We're both into computer stuff. We're not real big partiers. As young players, we really took our jobs seriously and liked to hang out and go to movies or do dinner."
Delgado, who was signed by the Blue Jays as a free agent when he was 17, was in the organization for three years before he met Green, who declined a scholarship at Stanford when Toronto made him its first-round pick and 16th choice overall in the 1991 First-Year Player Draft. Their first season together was in 1992 at Class A Dunedin where Delgado, who had moved from catcher to the outfield, had a breakout season, batting .324 with 30 home runs and 100 RBIs.
They moved on to Double-A Knoxville in 1993 and got a taste of big-league life that September. Each divided time between Triple-A Syracuse and the Blue Jays in 1994 before sticking with Toronto for good in 1995, by which time Delgado has moved to first base, his current position. Delgado and Green were slugging partners for the Blue Jays through the 1999 season, and their friendship did not end when Toronto traded Green to the Dodgers on Nov. 8, 1999 for outfielder Raul Mondesi and pitcher Pedro Borbon, Jr.
"We maintained contact," Green said. "We'd talk to each other once a week or so. We had spent a lot of time together off the field. We made a couple of offseason trips, one a baseball trip to Japan and another to Europe. We traveled to Costa Rica one offseason. He attended charity functions for me in California and I for him in Puerto Rico. Nothing really changed between us."
Each was in the other's wedding party. Green displayed some nifty salsa steps when Delgado married Betzaida Garcia. When Shawn and Lindsay Green got married, Delgado had a problem keeping the yarmulke, a traditional Jewish head covering, on his shaved dome.
"We had to use two-sided tape to keep it on," Green recalled.
They went separate ways again last year, Green to the Diamondbacks in a trade and Delgado to the Marlins as a free agent. The Mets had courted Delgado, and Minaya kept after him until convincing him to accept a trade Nov. 24, 2005 for first baseman Mike Jacobs, Minor League pitcher Yusmeiro Petit and Minor League infielder Grant Psomas.
Since Aug. 22, the relationship between Delgado and Green is no longer long distance. Green had little problem feeling at home, since besides Delgado, the Mets had five other former teammates for Green to rejoin with.
"That was a big part of it," Green said about accepting the trade. "And not just Carlos. But having Paul Lo Duca and some other guys I played with in L.A., Guillermo Mota and Duaner Sanchez. Chris Woodward I knew from back in Toronto, and I played with Kelly Stinnett in Arizona. I heard great things talking to them about the experience here. At this stage of my career, it's a no-brainer to come here and be a part of this. After all that time coming up through the Toronto system and the first five years in the Major Leagues, to get a chance potentially to win a World Series, if there is one guy in the game I can say I want to experience it with, it would be Carlos."
"Our friendship goes beyond baseball," Delgado said. "There's a saying in baseball that after Oct. 1, you get to pick your own friends, but in our case, we have developed a good relationship. I was happy for him. I was happy for the club because I knew we were getting a good player who could help us win. This has been a very fun summer, but I think the best is yet to come, and I'm really looking forward to the playoffs."
Green, 33, hit .283 (118-417) with 59 runs, 22 doubles, three triples, 11 home runs, 51 RBI, with 37 walks and 64 strikeouts in 115 games with Arizona this year. He has also notched 31 multi-hit games this season.
Earlier this season, the 6-4, 210-pounder became the 12th active player to record 300 home run and 400 doubles. Shawn also collected his 1,000th career RBI on July 21st vs. Colorado.
Green was named to the 1999 and 2002 National League All-Star teams.
Shawn hit .286 (166-581) with 87 runs scored, 37 doubles, four triples, 22 home runs, 73 RBI, with 62 walks and 95 strikeouts in 158 contests in 2005.
He established career highs with 49 home runs and 125 RBI in 2001 with the Dodgers. Shawn has hit 20-or-more home runs seven times and driven in 100-or-more runs four times.
Green has batted .283 (1,844-6,523) with 1,053 runs scored, 406 doubles, 34 triples, 314 home runs, 1,009 RBI, 151 stolen bases in 1,787 major league games with the Blue Jays, Dodgers and Diamondbacks.
MacLane, 23, was 9-8 with a 3.86 ERA in 20 starts for Norfolk (AAA) of the International League. In 121.1 innings, he allowed 136 hits, 61 runs, 52 earned, with 35 walks and 67 strikeouts. In addition, Evan was 3-1 with a 4.64 ERA in six starts for Binghamton (AA) of the Eastern League. In 33.0 innings, he permitted 17 runs, earned, with two walks and 25 strikeouts.
The Diamondbacks have got their man.
Hours before the deadline, Green and the Diamondbacks reached an agreement on an extension that enticed the outfielder to waive his no-trade clause.
The agreement reworks Green's salaries to pay him $30 million for three years. In 2008, there's a mutual option at a salary of $10 million. He can be bought out of the option for $2 million or can declare himself a free agent. His annual salaries will be $10.5 million, $8 million and $9.5 million with the $2 million payment potentially slated for 2008.
In addition to the 32-year-old Green, the Diamondbacks will receive $10 million. The Dodgers get four minor leaguers in return, catcher Dioner Navarro and right-handed pitchers William Juarez, Danny Muegge and Beltran Perez.
The Diamondbacks are set to acquire Navarro from the Yankees along with pitchers Javier Vazquez and Brad Halsey in exchange for Randy Johnson. Arizona will also receive $9 million from the Yankees in that deal.
The only thing that stands in the way of both deals being finalized is physicals for all players involved, with most of them happening Monday.Essentially, the Diamondbacks received Vazquez, Green, Halsey and $19 million for Johnson, who won four Cy Youngs in six seasons with the club. All along, Arizona maintained that it would need to get back at least two front line Major Leaguers if it traded the Big Unit.
"I'm pleased that we were able to do what we said we were going to do," Arizona lead general partner Ken Kendrick said. "We believe in exchange for Randy Johnson, we received a top pitcher (Vazquez), a top position player (Green) and a good pitching prospect (Halsey)."
This was the Diamondbacks' third attempt at acquiring Green, who batted .266 with 28 homers and 86 RBIs in 2004. Last month, they thought they had a three-team deal worked out with the Dodgers and Yankees, only to have it fall apart when LA decided to pull out.
Last Monday, the Diamondbacks and Dodgers agreed on a trade that would have sent Green and $8 million to Arizona in exchange for Navarro and Juarez. The D-Backs, though, were unable to reach an agreement on an extension with Green before the 48-hour window expired.
The two teams then reworked the deal with the Dodgers, with LA adding $2 million and the Diamondbacks including Perez and Muegge. A second 48-hour window opened Saturday morning.
With Green set to make $10.5 million and the Dodgers kicking in $10 million, Arizona will essentially pay Green just $500,000 next year. That gives the D-Backs more financial freedom to fill other needs.
Arizona is still looking to add more starting pitching, a center fielder and veterans for the bullpen and bench.
"This allows us to focus on other areas now where we still feel we have needs," Kendrick said.
The Diamondbacks have been in a holding pattern while working on the two deals. Now, the other moves that they have in mind should take shape rather quickly. The team has made an offer to free agent pitcher Shawn Estes and has interest in veteran reliever Steve Reed.
The Arizona Republic first reported Saturday that the team could reach a deal with the A's for center fielder Eric Byrnes, who is eligible for salary arbitration and may be too expensive for Oakland.
The acquisition of Green to play right field would seem to make infielder Shea Hillenbrand expendable. With the recently signed Troy Glaus at third, the D-Backs can move Chad Tracy to first leaving Hillenbrand the odd man out. Multiple reports have Hillenbrand being dealt to the Blue Jays in exchange for young reliever Adam Peterson.
Perez was 2-6 with a 4.41 ERA in 37 games (8 starts) for Double-A El Paso last season. Juarez saw time at El Paso where he was 3-7 with a 5.00 ERA in 13 starts, and also made seven starts for Class A South Bend, going 3-1 with a 1.55 ERA. Muegge appeared in 26 games (25 starts) for South Bend and compiled a 14-4 record and a 3.12 ERA.
Seventh HR in Three Games
Dodgers Rout Diamondbacks 10-5
By
MEL REISNER
.c The Associated
Press
PHOENIX -- Not even a broken bat can keep Shawn Greeen from
hitting
home runs.
Green broke his
favorite bat
-- the
one he used to set a major league record of
seven home runs in three games --
with the second of his two homers as thee
Los Angeles Dodgers beat the
Arizona Diamondbacks 10-5 Saturday night.
Green hit a
three-run homer
off Rick
Helling (4-5) in the fifth inning and a two-run
shot off Eddie Oropesa in the
ninth, giving him nine home runs this week and 12
on the season. The Los Angeles
slugger felt his 34-inch, 32-ounce bat crack near
the handle as he took his final
swing of the night.
"I thought it was
going to be
close, and I wasn't sure if I broke my bat or not,''
said Green, who had six RBI.
"But, you know, the ball carries well here. It seems
like it carries real well to the
gap.''
Both homers curled
toward the
opposite field. The first sailed 414 feet onto a
picnic pavilion above the seats
in the left-center grandstand, and the second
one dropped into the stands.
"I never thought
that second
one would carry,'' Dodgers manager Jim Tracy said.
"Oropesa had
so much topspin on that ball, but it just seemed like it was never
going to come down.''
Green tied the
major league
record with four homers Thursday in Milwaukee. He
homered Friday against the
Diamondbacks to match the record for homers in
two games.
Green set a
National League
record with nine homers in a calendar week,
breaking the
mark last reached by San Diego's Nate Colbert in 1972.
Washington's
Frank Howard set the major league mark of 10 in 1968.
The Hall of Fame
called to get
Green's bat, another thrill for the 29-year-old
slugger.
"It died a hero,''
Green said.
"It's a great feeling. Any pieces, anything that I've
used that gets into the Hall of
Fame is a thrill.''
Dave Roberts hit a
grand slam
in the second inning for the Dodgers, who won
for the sixth time in nine games.
Green added a
sacrifice fly in
the seventh. After coming into the week with only
three homers, he is 14-for-21 in
the last five games, with nine homers, a double,
a triple and
17 RBIs.
The previous record
of six
homers in three games had been accomplished 11
times. Barry
Bonds was the last to do it, on May 19-21, 2001, for San Francisco.
"We talked about
guys being
locked in,'' Diamondbacks manager Bob Brenly
said. "When they are you might as
well roll it up there, because anything that
gets there in the air -- if they
think they can get the head of the bat on it --
they're going to hit it.''
Green hit his first
homer in
18 career
at-bats against Helling on a 1-0 pitch. The
second came on a 2-0 pitch by
Oropesa.
Helling walked Green in the first inning and got him on a groundout in the third.
"That last at-bat,
I made an
average pitch to a well-above-average hitter that's,
right now, the hottest hitter in
baseball,'' Helling said. "He's hitting balls
out of
every part of the park.''
Helling, who leads
the NL in
homers allowed with 15, yielded seven runs, six hits
and three walks in six innings.
Andy Ashby (4-4)
gave up two
runs and five hits in 5 2/3 innings for his second
straight win. Tony Womack tripled
with two outs in the sixth, and reliever Omar
Daal gave up
an RBI single to pinch-hitter Mark Grace.
Arizona scored
three times off
Giovanni Carrara in the eighth on RBI groundouts
by Womack and pinch-hitter Chris
Donnels, and a run-scoring triple by Junior
Spivey.
Eric Gagne retired
Luis
Gonzalez on a fly to left with a runner on to end the
eighth and finished for his 16th
save in 17 chances.
Mark Grudzielanek
and Alex
Cora started
the second-inning rally with
consecutive two-out singles, and
Helling walked Ashby.
Roberts, an
offseason
acquisition from Cleveland, made it 4-1 with a homer into
the right-field grandstand. It
was his second homer with Los Angeles and the
fourth of his career.
In the fifth, Ashby
led off
with a single and moved up on Adrian Beltre's single,
setting the stage for Green.
Arizona manager Bob
Brenly was
ejected for arguing after home plate umpire
Greg Gibson called Roberts safe
on Green's fly to right in the seventh. Jose
Guillen's throw reached home on
the fly, turning Roberts' dash from third into a
close play.
May 23 2002- A day for the ages for Green
Shawn goes deep again, and again, and again and . . .
By Ken Gurnick / MLB.com
MILWAUKEE -- The Dodgers have been waiting all season for Shawn Green to go off, but not like this, not all in one day.
The hope was that Green could carry the offense without Gary Sheffield, and for the first quarter of the season, he couldn't. He slumped. He was booed at home. Saturday, he was benched by the manager.
Thursday, the same guy pulled off the stuff of legends. The guy who didn't hit a home run in almost four weeks became the 14th player in Major League history to hit four home runs in one game. He set a Major League single-game record with 19 total bases. He went 6-for-6 with a double and single against the last-place Milwaukee Brewers. He drove in seven runs, scored six.
Green set franchise single-game records for most home runs, most runs scored and most total bases. He tied club records with five extra-base hits and six total hits. One homer was a three-run shot, three were solos, the last one part of back-to-back-to-back blasts in the ninth inning. When Green sat out Saturday's game against Montreal, his average down to .230, his name on the lineup card was listed with other Dodger reserves -- Dave Hansen, Alex Cora, Jeff Reboulet. TToday his name is right there with Lou Gehrig and Willie Mays.
As the team headed for the weekend showdown in Arizona, it did so with hard proof of what could happen if the Green that hit 49 home runs last year is back.
His four home runs were only half the team's total, the eight homers in one game another franchise single-game record. Joining Green in the home-run trot were Brian Jordan, Hiram Bocachica, Adrian Beltre and Dave Hansen. Marquis Grissom had a ninth home run pulled back into the park by Milwaukee left fielder Geoff Jenkins.
"See what Greenie can do when he's in a zone?" said Jordan, who was on the St. Louis disabled list when Mark Whiten hit four home runs in a 1993 game in Cincinnati. "This is what it's all about, getting all of us clicking at the same time. Greenie's finally relaxing, I'm finally relaxing. This was exciting, but it was exciting enough to have an 8-1 lead in the second inning. It was a breath of fresh air."
The 16-3 whacking with a 19-hit attack followed a 1-0 win, examples of just how unpredictable this Dodger offense is.
The beneficiary of the windfall was Kazuhisa Ishii, who needed it. The lefty raised his record to 7-1 but struggled pitching with a lingering strained hip flexor. He lasted only 5 1/3 innings, allowing eight hits and six walks but only two earned runs.
But that was a lot better than the Brewer pitchers. Granted, Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson were not on the mound Thursday, but will be Friday and Sunday. Coming off this barrage, the Dodger offense is as ready as it ever will be.
"Obviously, when Greenie swings like he did today, he presents a threat that we haven't had this year,"said Eric Karros. "He's the only guy on the team capable of that. The funny thing is, four days ago everybody's ready to write him off. He was booed in L.A. That's why you can't overreact to one game or one series. People who don't know the game sometimes have a tendency to do that."
Karros batted cleanup in the game as Paul Lo Duca was rested.
"All you guys who've been writing about no protection for Greenie, just remember who was protecting him today," Karros said in jest so Lo Duca could hear.
Green entered the series hitting .231 with three home runs, 21 RBI and led the league grounding into 12 double-plays. In these three games, he went 9-for-14 with six homers and 10 RBIs. Eight of his hits went for extra bases. In six career games at Miller Park, he is 13-for-24 with nine home runs.
Tracy said Green's problems have been mechanical, but hitting is a "feel" thing to Green and he is never very good explaining it good or bad.
"The first night of the series I got a home run, then I got another one and it started to catch on and it wasn't a fluke," Green said. "After that, my swing has been where I want it to be. Yesterday I tripled on a pitch that's been eating me up all year. Little things like that help you realize things are right."
He hit home runs off Glendon Rusch in the second inning, two off Brian Mallette in the fourth and fifth innings, then needed Chad Kreuter to double and Beltre to homer in the top of the ninth so he'd get a second shot at No.4 after singling in the eighth inning. He also hit two in Tuesday's disappointing loss, the Dodgers missing a series sweep because they blew a 5-0 lead.
Green said he homered Thursday on three fastballs and a slider. At no time did Brewers pitchers brush back a Dodger hitter, especially surprising Green.
"If I had gotten drilled, I'd still be the happiest guy in Milwaukee," said Green. "I was looking for a pitch up in the zone, something to drive and got it."
The magnitude of the achievement was still sinking in as he dressed for
the flight to Phoenix. "I wish I had a few days off to enjoy it,"
he said. "The ball's been looking like a ping-pong ball, but
today it was like a softball. It's
incredible to be in the same category as guys
like Mays and Gehrig. It's incredible to have records like this. Duke
Snider, they wrote a song about him. They're legends."
With nine home runs, Green is only one off last year's pace. The Dodgers are 9-1 in games against left-handed starters and are 13-3 in games started by their lefties.
Ken Gurnick covers the Dodgers for MLB.com. This article was
not subject to approval by Major League Baseball or its clubs.
Brewer faithful witness history
MILWAUKEE
-- In the top of the ninth inning Thursdaay,, the loudest cheer of the
day suddenly arose from
the crowd of 26,728 at Miller Park.
At the time, the home team, the Milwaukee Brewers, were losing to the
Los Angeles Dodgers by the embarrassing margin of 14-2. Perhaps the
Milwaukeeans were cheering because this latest humiliation was
almost at end.
That wasn't it. But these folks were not cheering for the Brewers.
They wanted to see history. And history
was walking to the plate in the company of a
man in the road gray uniform of the Los Angeles Dodgers -- No. 15,
Shawn Green.
This was a man who had been booed in Dodger Stadium last week because his season so far had failed to stage a proper encore after he hit a franchise-record 49 home runs last season.
But Shawn Green was at the other end of the spectrum Thursday. As he came to the plate, he had three home runs for the day, not to mention a double and a single. This was what the noise was about. The Wisconsin patrons of the game wanted to see the record-tying fourth home run.
Green could not fail to hear. "I have never received an ovation like that on the road." he said. He noted that Milwaukee had a "special meaning" for him because the Toronto Blue Jays called him up to play his first Major League game here, and he hit his first big-league home run in old County Stadium.
Green had a chance for the fourth home run in the eighth, but singled to center In the ninth two Dodgers had to reach in order for Green to get another shot. Chad Kreuter doubled and Adrian Beltre homered to create the opportunity.
"When Beltre hit that homer, I thought: 'Here we go,'" Green said. And there he went.
He took
a ball
from Brewer
reliever Jose Cabrera and then took a mighty cut and missed. The
obvious, but not
particularly incisive question was asked: Was
he trying to hit a home run?
Green chuckled. "I've been trying to hit a home run all year," he said. He came to this series against Milwaukee with just three home runs this season, but he had hit two Tuesday night and the three Thursday.
Then, on the 1-1 count, Cabrera threw a fastball over the plate. Shawn Green uncoiled. It's a good-looking left-handed swing when he's got it going and he had it going here. The bat met the ball. The ball left the bat as though launched by some kind of larger, more powerful mechanism. The ball did not land until it found a distant walkway beyond right-center field, an estimated 450 feet away. Shawn Green had the record, becoming the 14th player in Major League history to hit four home runs in a game. The second ovation for the visiting outfielder was even larger than the first.
What the people who wanted to see history made might not have known was that there was more history involved than even the four home runs. Shawn Green had 19 total bases in this game. This broke the Major League record held by Joe Adcock of the Milwaukee Braves, who had 18 total bases on July 31, 1954.
"An amazing feat," Dodgers manager Jim Tracy said. "He had a day today that goes down as one of the greatest in the history of the game. You can go to a lot of games, you can cover a lot of games, but you won't see another day like that by one individual for a long, long time, if ever."
Tracy pointed out that Green had persevered through a difficult first quarter of the season. Expected to be the focal point of the L.A. offense after Gary Sheffield was traded, Green had struggled. And so had much of the Dodgers offense, although the 16-run, eight-home run outburst Thursday tended to make that yesterday's news.
"He handled it as well as you could expect any Major League player to handle it," Tracy said of Green's adversity.
Green is a self-effacing fellow. Four home runs didn't change that part of his nature. He was that way last year when he broke Duke Snider's franchise home run record for left-handed hitters and when he broke the franchise record for home runs held by Snider and Sheffield. "I mean, being mentioned along with Duke Snider, he had a song written about him," Green said. He also said he could not dream of getting four home runs in a day. Ditto for six hits.
His post-game comments were generally tinged with pleasant amazement. People were bringing up names like Willie Mays and Mike Schmidt, other players who hit four homers in one game. Green kept suggesting how surprised he was to find himself in their company.
"I appreciate the fact that they kept coming right after me," he said of the Milwaukee pitchers. What a nice thing to say after you have clobbered the opposition's pitching staff. Shawn Green may have pounded lumps on those pitchers, but then he found a way to extend some dignity in their direction.
He got a three-run homer off starter Glendon Rusch, a lefty, in the second inning. "He can be tough on left-handers, so it felt good to get that one," Green said.
That was 385 feet. The second, in the fourth inning, off Brian Mallette, was 415 feet. The third, in the fifth, off Mallette again, was 396 feet to left-center, no less. None of these homers was in any way cheap or borderline or anything that could be diminished in the least. But the fourth, fittingly, was the most majestic of all.
He was, as they say, seeing the ball well. This was not always the case this spring. "I struggled for this first six weeks of this season," Green said, more than once. Then, the baseball looked like "a ping pong ball, Green said. How did it look Thursday? "More like a softball," he said.
It was suggested to Green that maybe the Brewers might have brushed him back, perhaps even plunked him with a pitch in that final at-bat. Green smiled and said: "If they had drilled me, I still had would have left here as the happiest guy in Milwaukee."
This was objectively, by the sheer numbers, the greatest one-man,
one-game hitting performance in the history of baseball. OK, it didn't
come in a do-or-die, pennant-on-the-line moment. But it was still
awe-inspiring. It was enough so that people watching abandoned their
natural rooting interests and simply cheered for the man who was
making history.
You left Miller Park Thursday not thinking Los Angeles 16, Milwaukee 3, although that thought was available. You left thinking: "Hey, Shawn, thanks for doing this when I was watching."
Mike Bauman is the national columnist for MLB.com. This story
was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its
clubs.
Not Fade Away - Read an article about
Shawn from a 1994 issue of SCOREBOOK magazine.
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