Dodgers' Kuo offers Dodgers hope By MARK WHICKER The Orange County Register LOS ANGELES – A Dodger starting pitcher reached the sixth inning Sunday without having to produce two forms of identification and a thumbprint. Amazingly, he was even allowed to proceed to the seventh. The laws of supply and demand worked for Hong-Chih Kuo and the Dodgers. He has surplus innings. They need every pitch. This is a 25-year-old lefty who has survived the double jeopardy of two Tommy John surgeries. This is a team that is one loss away from anesthesia and two losses away from intensive care. Kuo operated beautifully, with eight strikeouts and no earned runs in those seven innings, and he doubled to left, although he appeared to begin his journey with an unwarranted home run trot. He even scored the Dodgers' only run, until Nomar Garciaparra buried the final 2006 Dodger Stadium regular-season pitch into the left-center pavilion, a grand slam in the bottom of the ninth. Sure, it was only the third most dramatic homer in seven days here. It was also the most important, since it kept the Dodgers a game-and-a-half behind San Diego and a half-game of Philadelphia, and beat Arizona, 5-1. "Everybody did the little things," Garciaparra said, "but you can't say enough about what the pitching staff did. This was their game today." Kuo used this 100-pitch extravaganza to earn a Friday start in San Francisco, a game the Dodgers hope is meaningful. For those inclined to think about 2007 and beyond, Kuo means hope - a homegrown starting pitcher with real bullets, as long as the gun isn't jammed. "I felt good," Kuo said, "and I threw good sliders. I just took it inning-by-inning and tried to do my best." "This guy's a strikeout pitcher," said Rick Honeycutt, the pitching coach. "Today he did it to lots of right-handed hitters (eight righties on the Arizona lineup card). We thought he could get ahead in some counts and then t hrow some pitches into some 'chase' areas, and we'd have some success." An error by Wilson Betemit set up an Arizona run and a second-and-third problem in the third inning, but Kuo struck out Conor Jackson and walked off. A first-and-third situation arose in the fourth, and Kuo froze Chris Snyder to escape again. Then Kuo slammed a drive over left fielder Scott Hairston's head and off the wall. He ambled to first, sprinted to second. "I didn't know if it was going out or not," said Kuo, who homered once in Las Vegas this year. "I thought, OK, I got a hit." You were supposed to have heard about Kuo long before this. His grand 2000 debut with San Bernardino was a party that dissipated into smoke. Kuo struck out seven batters in three innings and then wrecked his elbow. He didn't pitch again until June of '01. Then he missed all of '03. "He had a nerve entrapment issue," Honeycutt said. "When the scar tissue builds up, sometimes it gets caught and you need to fix it again." Maybe Kuo - and other pitchers - should have surgery more often. Kuo's post-op stuff was just as lethal, striking out 86 in 54 innings in '05. The Dodgers lifted him out of the bullpen at midseason in Las Vegas. In four starters for the varsity, he's 2-2 with a 2.59 ERA, and 29 strikeouts in 241/3 innings. And, for the first time since Sept. 15, someone went seven innings for the Dodgers who is not named Derek Lowe. "His stuff is obviously electric," bullpen coach Dan Warthen said. "But he wasn't getting very good command of his breaking stuff when he was in the bullpen. I think being a starter has relaxed him somewhat." "We just wanted to build up innings and arm strength with him," Honeycutt said. "It took him a while to throw the curveball. I think there was some fear there, because he got hurt throwing that pitch at one point. He's had some excellent starts." Kuo dispelled a marine layer of pessimism at the Stadium, based upon the refusal of either San Diego or Philadelphia to lose over the weekend. An Arizona official tried to bring some sunshine by pointing out that the Diamondbacks are 51-22 lifetime against San Diego in the downtown Phoenix ballpark (known unofficially as A Big Bank Which Bought A Smaller Bank Field). The Padres play at Arizona next weekend. However, the Padres first go to St. Louis, where Albert Pujols is limping and Jason Isringhausen is out for the season. The three contenders all finish on the road. The Dodgers' challenge is to emerge from Colorado (Tuesday through Thursday) with hope, and a bullpen that can brush its teeth without anti-inflammatories. Maybe the kid from Taiwan, with grafitti on his elbow and lots of time to make up, is the best symbol for the Dodgers. They needed Hong-Chih Kuo Sunday. They didn't need Status. -- 我的可爱女儿们 http://0rz.net/321AC --

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