Rain Falls Down, Mondesi Moves Up

Desperate to shake up his docile offense, Dodger Manager Bill Russell made a lineup change before Tuesday night’s game at Dodger Stadium, moving Raul Mondesi from the No. 5 spot to the No. 2 position.

Russell couldn’t have picked a better night.

It was a miserable, cold, muddy, rain-soaked night at Dodger Stadium. But for Russell, Mondesi and the Dodgers, it couldn’t have been nicer.

The Dodger right fielder drove in three runs with a two-run homer and a sacrifice fly to give his team a 3-2 lead over the Philadelphia Phillies in a game that was halted in the eighth inning with the Phillies’ Rico Brogna at first and nobody out. Catcher Mike Lieberthal was at bat with a 1-and-0 count, reliever Jim Bruske on the mound. The Dodgers would have themselves a 3-2 seven-inning victory if the game was rained out.

And Russell would have pushed just the right button because Mondesi drove in the go-ahead run in the seventh with his fly ball to center field. Had he been batting in his normal spot, he wouldn’t have had the opportunity to knock in Thomas Howard, who led off the inning with a double down the third-base line.

For awhile Tuesday, it appeared as if the Dodgers would have their first rainout at Dodger Stadium in a decade and their first postponement of a home game since the 1992 Los Angeles riots. Should Tuesday’s game had been canceled, it would have ended a streak of 782 consecutive games without a washout, longest in the history of a stadium that has only had 15 rainouts since it opened in 1962.

It didn’t look good an hour before the scheduled 7:05 p.m. start. The warning track looked about as solid as the La Brea tar pits.

The ground crew took the tarp off once, put it back on and finally removed it in time for the game to commence at 8:04, 59 minutes late.

“We want to move things around,” said Russell of the Mondesi move, “to see if we can get something started.”

Mondesi got something started his very first time up, cranking a 2-and-2 pitch from Philadelphia starter Curt Shilling over the left-field wall with Eric Young aboard in the first inning.

That put the Dodgers in front after the Phillies had taken the early lead in the top half of the inning on back-to-back doubles by Scott Rolen and Brogna.

Both pitchers worked out of jams in the third. With Phillies at first and third, Dodger starter Ramon Martinez got Brogna to fly to center. With the bases loaded for the Dodgers in the bottom of that inning, Schilling got Matt Luke to pop up to third baseman Rolen in foul territory.

Rolen had to make his way carefully through the soft, moist ground near the box seats to get to the ball.

Philadelphia broke through to tie the score in the fourth. After Lieberthal opened with a double and was singled to third by Bob Abreu, Desi Relaford singled to center to even the score.

Relaford, a rookie, had a seven-game hitting streak earlier this season, but, since then, he was just three for 26 before getting Tuesday’s game-tying hit.

In the bottom of the fifth, the rain returned and fell intermittently throughout the rest of the game, but it didn’t seem to bother the players.

Play was halted at 10:31, sending what was left of a crowd listed at 32,382 but actually considerably smaller, scattering for cover.

The Dodgers did the same, hoping they wouldn’t have to return.

But return they did. Nearly an hour after play was halted the tarp was removed. The players began loosening up, hoping to resume play close to midnight.

Before Tuesday’s game, Russell said he was close to making a decision on a left fielder because he did not like the current platoon situation, which has left-handed hitters Todd Hollandsworth and Matt Luke getting the majority of the starts.

Luke, who entered the game hitting .297, didn’t hurt himself with a single and double in three at-bats. Hollandsworth, who began play at .240, didn’t help himself by going hitless in three at-bats with two strikeouts. Hollandsworth has struck out 33 times in 35 games.

“He can do better,” Russell said.