LOS ANGELES (AP)—If Prince Fielder’s(notes) teammates and several security guards hadn’t stopped the furious Milwaukee slugger at the Dodgers’ clubhouse door, reliever Guillermo Mota(notes) could have faced a whole other kind of discipline for the late shenanigans that marred Los Angeles’ landmark win.
Fielder was denied in his postgame attempt to challenge Mota, who hit him with a pitch in the ninth inning of Los Angeles’ 17-4 victory over the Brewers on Tuesday night.
Mota drilled Fielder with two outs, apparently in retaliation for a pitch that hit Dodgers slugger Manny Ramirez(notes) in the seventh inning of Los Angeles’ highest-scoring home performance in 30 years. Home plate umpire Marvin Hudson immediately ejected Mota, who slowly left the field while Fielder voiced his anger.
When the game ended, Fielder charged through the underground tunnels at Dodger Stadium to the door of the home clubhouse, shouting obscenities with many fellow Brewers trailing behind. Several security guards and teammates Bill Hall(notes) and Casey McGehee(notes) prevented Fielder from entering the locker room in search of Mota.
“He ran over there, and they weren’t going to let him in, and everybody came back,” Milwaukee manager Ken Macha said. “I don’t know if you can restrain Prince. I don’t think I can. I don’t think there’s anybody else out there who can.”
Fielder had calmed down moments later, but his actions set up a potentially explosive series finale Wednesday night.
“He came inside. It just got away from him,” Fielder said. “It happens. That’s baseball. He tried to come inside.”
When asked about his postgame march to the other side, he deadpanned: “I don’t remember that.”
Most of the Dodgers didn’t know about Fielder’s march, since the door he reached is at least 30 feet down a hallway from the clubhouse. The Dodgers had plenty of their own anger after Brewers reliever Chris Smith(notes) hit Ramirez when Los Angeles had a nine-run lead in the seventh.
“It’s just part of the game,” catcher Russell Martin(notes) said of Mota’s pitch. “Our premier hitter gets hit, and he gets protection. I understand (Fielder) is frustrated, but you don’t take care of that after the game.
“We don’t want the same situation as last year in the playoffs, when Philly threw at Manny and we didn’t retaliate,” Martin added, referring to last fall’s NL championship series against the Phillies. “We don’t want to be known as a team that doesn’t have each other’s backs.”
The trouble overshadowed the Dodgers’ highest-scoring performance of the season on 18 hits. Los Angeles improved the majors’ best record to 66-41.
“It’s a part of the game I don’t like,” Macha said. “We’re just trying to get out of the game after getting our butts kicked pretty good. I thought it was pretty obvious. He hits Prince and walks right off the mound. Prince was standing at home plate looking at him, so he was pretty upset after the game.”
The Dodgers had little trouble until after the game. Ramirez ended his 10-game RBI drought with a homer and a two-run double, and Matt Kemp(notes) had a homer among his four hits while driving in five runs. Kemp had two hits and two RBIs during the seven-run sixth inning, while Martin reached base five times and had three RBIs.
Los Angeles sent eight men to the plate in a four-run first inning and used 12 batters in the sixth before batting around again in the five-run eighth. Six Dodgers had multihit games, including three apiece for Martin and Andre Ethier(notes).
The Dodgers hadn’t scored 17 runs at Dodger Stadium since May 25, 1979, against Cincinnati.
Hiroki Kuroda(notes) (4-5) pitched six resilient innings to earn his first win since July 3. He yielded nine hits and three runs, struck out seven and escaped a fifth-inning jam.
Ramirez ended his RBI-less streak at 44 at-bats, matching the longest drought of his career in 1997, with a long homer in the fifth off Yovani Gallardo(notes) (10-8), who yielded 10 hits and nine runs. Ramirez hadn’t driven in a run since his pinch-hit grand slam July 22.
Ramirez, in a 7-for-44 slump before his 12th homer, had a chance for his 22nd career grand slam in the sixth. He settled for a sharp two-RBI drive down the left field line.
Kemp matched his career highs in hits and RBIs during his fourth five-RBI game of the season, missing only a triple to complete the cycle. He hit a two-run homer in the eighth, and Ethier added a two-run double before Mota drove in his first run since 2004 with a long single.
NOTES: The Dodgers scratched All-Star 2B Orlando Hudson(notes) about 90 minutes before game time because of an upset stomach. Hudson had started 101 of Los Angeles’ first 106 games. Juan Castro(notes) replaced him. … Junior Seau served as a Dodgers batboy as a stunt for a television show. Seau hasn’t formally said he’s retired from his 19-season NFL career, but the 40-year-old certainly seemed ready for new challenges while running around in a slightly too-tight No. 55 Dodgers uniform.
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