LOS ANGELES (AP) Brian Dozier began his first game for the Los Angeles Dodgers with an error and then got better quickly.
Yasmani Grandal hit a two-run homer – his second of the game – in the 10th inning, and Dozier homered in a 6-4 comeback win over the Milwaukee Brewers on Wednesday night to snap a three-game skid.
”We haven’t swung the bats well the last three games,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. ”You feel a bit of an exhale tonight.”
Dozier went 3 for 4 with two runs scored after being acquired from Minnesota on Tuesday.
”It was a fun game,” he said, ”especially after the home run and curtain call. That was pretty cool.”
All-Star Matt Kemp ended an 0-for-26 skid with a single leading off 10th against Matt Albers (3-3). Grandal followed with his 19th homer after the Dodgers had blown a 4-2 lead.
The Brewers tied it 4-all in the eighth. Mike Moustakas doubled off reliever Scott Alexander, who gave up three walks – one intentional – before Manny Pina singled in Ryan Braun.
Dozier scored to put the Dodgers ahead 3-2 in the seventh on Yasiel Puig’s single.
”That’s a good debut,” Kemp said of Dozier. ”Show Dodgers fans what he’s capable of doing.”
The Dodgers trailed 2-0 in the fifth when Grandal and Dozier homered back-to-back to tie it up. Dozier went deep to center field on the first pitch from Chase Anderson.
”I’m surprised the ball actually got out. It was kind of top-spun. I thought it was going to at leat bounce or hit the wall,” Anderson said of Grandal’s first homer. ”The pitch that I would take back would definitely be the Dozier one. I would start that at-bat with a different pitch or locate that ball a bit better.”
Dozier got pushed into taking a curtain call after his 17th homer overall.
”Being the first game, it’s kind of like, `What do I do?”’ Dozier said. ”Kike grabbed me and said, `Get on out there.”’
Dozier singled leading off the seventh. With one out, Chris Taylor walked and Puig singled to right field, scoring Dozier to give the Dodgers a 3-2 lead. Pinch-hitter Enrique Hernandez followed and sacrificed into a fielder’s choice along the first-base line, scoring Taylor.
”Love the way he plays the game,” Roberts said of Dozier. ”He’s a hard-nosed player. I think there’s more of that to come.”
Dylan Floro (4-2) got the win after retiring the side in the 10th.
Lorenzo Cain went 3 for 4 with a walk for Milwaukee, falling a home run shy of the cycle. He tripled in the first and scored on second baseman Dozier’s throwing error.
The Brewers led 2-0 in the third when Cain scored on Rich Hill’s wild pitch. Grandal lost the ball when it took a weird hop and he spun around in confusion trying to find it as Cain came home.
Jonathan Schoop went hitless in five at-bats, including three strikeouts, in his Brewers debut after being traded from Baltimore.
Anderson gave up two runs and three hits in six innings. He struck out six and walked two.
Hill allowed two runs and six hits in six innings, struck out four and walked one.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Dodgers: 3B Justin Turner (right groin strain) will be activated off the DL on Thursday. … RHP Hyun-Jin Ryu (strained groin muscle) begins a rehab assignment Thursday with a start for Class A Advanced Rancho Cucamonga.
RARE FEAT
Grandal became the second Dodger catcher in franchise history to have a multi-homer game that included a walk-off shot. He joins Hall of Famer Roy Campanella, who achieved the feat on May 27, 1953, against the New York Giants.
WALK OFF
It was the Dodgers’ second walk-off win of the season and first since June 13 against Texas. They improved to 5-6 in extra innings this season.
UP NEXT
RHP Jhoulys Chacin (10-3, 3.45 ERA) starts for the Houston Astros and LHP Clayton Kershaw (4-5, 2.52) goes for the Dodgers in a rematch of last year’s World Series.
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