Dodgers Get In Some Cheap Shots in Victory

DENVER — The Dodgers could have been excused for calling the boss, coughing a couple of times over the phone and spending the day trembling under their covers.

Instead, they cranked up Bad Company on the stereo in the clubhouse, then pounded the Colorado Rockies, 9-5, in front of an announced 21,603 at Coors Field.

No one in the Dodger lineup was born when the band was at its peak in 1975.

With Jeff Kent and Olmedo Saenz sidelined and four other potential starters on the disabled list, the senior position player was catcher Jason Phillips, who had played all of 335 major league games.

This oddity did not go unnoticed, and Phillips, 28, was given a new nickname: “Pops.”

Fitting because Pops showed some pop, hitting a three-run home run to cap a four-run first inning that gave right-hander Brad Penny early support. Antonio Perez, batting in the No. 5 spot for the first time, hit a three-run home run in the seventh inning and drove in five runs.

Penny (5-5) said he expected nothing less from eight inexperienced position players whose total salary is $2.6 million, or about half of his own.

“These are young guys getting an opportunity and doing something with it,” he said. “I wasn’t surprised at all.”

Jeff Kent, who left Tuesday’s game after five innings because of a mildly strained hamstring, was available to pinch-hit but was not needed. He is two hits shy of 2,000, although neither the milestone nor next week’s All-Star game concern him.

“I’m real confident I caught it before it got bad,” he said. “I have no idea what the timetable is.

“I haven’t thought about [the All-Star game] at all. I’m just thinking that we have a game [today] and start a series at Houston on Friday.”

Saenz, who has already played more than he did all last season, has a sore hip and lower back pain.

That left a lineup with combined career totals of 103 home runs and 393 runs batted in. The highest-paid player was first baseman Hee-Seop Choi, who makes $351,500 -- only $35,500 above the minimum.

But they banged out 11 hits against Shawn Chacon and relievers David Cortes and Dan Miceli, executed hit-and-run plays, stretched singles into doubles and performed with the energy of players who know that one player’s misfortune is another’s opportunity.

Clearly the younger players heard Manager Jim Tracy’s message during a team meeting Monday, the day after outfielder J.D. Drew broke his wrist and joined Milton Bradley, Eric Gagne, Jose Valentin, Wilson Alvarez and Ricky Ledee on the disabled list.

“I said that rather than dwelling on the doom and gloom of all these injuries, they should recognize the opportunity it presents,” Tracy said. “How can you be disappointed with the job they are doing? You have to love the effort.”

Shortstop Oscar Robles made two sensational plays, diving up the middle to spear a ground ball and turning it into a double play to end the third inning and diving to his right for a ground ball and turning it into a force play in the eighth.

Left fielder Jayson Werth doubled, singled and scored twice. Center fielder Jason Repko doubled twice and ran down several fly balls.

And for the first time in days, the Dodgers left the park not wondering what calamity might befall them next. The San Diego Padres lost again, their lead over the Dodgers dwindling to 4 1/2 games.

Will Kent play today? The Dodgers dared think that maybe it won’t matter again if he can’t.

“The guy who had been carrying us wasn’t in the lineup, and we still scored nine runs and won,” Penny said. “You just don’t know until you show up and play.”