Baez Was Ready, but Wasn’t Needed

SAN FRANCISCO â€”  Redemption will have to wait. A day after giving up four runs in the ninth inning, Danys Baez came tantalizingly close to being called upon again Sunday.

But when the Dodgers scored a run in the ninth to pad their lead to four, the save situation had vanished and Baez went from the bullpen to the dugout. Joe Beimel, who had pitched the eighth, finished a 6-3 win over San Francisco.

“I was ready to close the game,� Baez said. “It was the same time, the same score. But it is never bad when we score runs. I was hoping we scored 10.�

Manager Grady Little will stay with Baez as closer, even though he stayed up until 4 a.m. Saturday night mulling alternatives while half-watching “Munich� in his hotel room.

“We’ll just have to fasten our seat belts and away we go,� he said.

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After the meltdown of relievers from Lance Carter and Hong-Chih Kuo to Franquelis Osoria and Baez, do the Dodgers regret releasing veteran Brian Meadows in spring training?

Not particularly. The right-hander caught on with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and has an earned-run average of 6.17 in eight appearances, giving up 18 hits in 11 2/3 innings.

The Dodgers do have a veteran on the horizon, though. Since signing a few days ago, right-hander Giovanni Carrara has given up two hits in 4 1/3 scoreless innings at triple-A Las Vegas.

Carrara, 38, made 72 appearances for the Dodgers last season and in four seasons with the team was 24-10 in 224 appearances.

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Ned Colletti’s boss and close friend for more than a decade was Brian Sabean, the Giants’ general manager. Since becoming the Dodgers’ general manager in November, Colletti had seen Sabean only once before this weekend -- at Sabean’s wedding three days after Colletti was hired.

They bumped into one another this weekend in the bowels of AT&T; Park, hugged and chatted for a good 15 minutes.

“Then we went to our neutral corners,� Colletti said, laughing.

Even though he has traded his black and orange for Dodger blue, Colletti couldn’t help but enjoy the ceremony Friday to celebrate Willie Mays’ 75th birthday.

“It was wonderful to see a lot of friends and people I spent a lot of time with and had success with,� Colletti said. “It will always be a special chapter in my career.�

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Dodgers Kenny Lofton and Nomar Garciaparra and Giants Ray Durham and Mike Matheny used a pink bat during some of their at-bats on Mother’s Day as part of Major League Baseball’s effort to raise awareness about breast cancer. Several other players wore pink sweatbands.

The players who used the bats signed them, and Major League Baseball will put them up for bidding, with the proceeds going to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

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In his first regular-season start for the independent Fort Worth Cats, Dodgers supplemental first-round draft pick Luke Hochevar struck out nine and gave up one run and four hits in five innings.

Hochevar, who can sign with the Dodgers until a week before this year’s June draft, had better command than he did in an exhibition start last week. His fastball again was consistently in the mid-90s.