On May 28, 2001, Paul Lo Duca had a day to remember for the Los Angeles Dodgers as he went 6-for-6 in their 11-10 victory against the Colorado Rockies in 11 innings at Dodger Stadium.
Lo Duca had five singles and a three-run home run while adding three runs scored and four RBI. Lo Duca’s performance at the time tied him for a National League record for total hits in an extra-innings game, which has been done 27 times in NL history.
The record has since been broken by San Francisco Giants shortstop Brandon Crawford, who went 7-for-8 in a 14-inning game against the Miami Marlins on Aug. 8, 2016.
Lo Duca ended up appearing in 125 games in 2001 and easily had the best season of his career. The then-29-year-old batted .320/.374/.543 with 25 home runs, 71 runs scored, 90 RBI, a 140 wRC+, and 5.1 WAR, which ended up being one-third of his career total.
Lo Duca stayed with the Dodgers until he was traded in a package to the Florida Marlins on July 30, 2004 for Hee-Seop Choi, Brad Penny and Bill Murphy.
Dodgers fans evacuate due to Dodger Stadium fire
Also on this day in Dodgers history but in 2011, a section of fans on the top deck seats at Dodger Stadium were forced to evacuate during a game against the Marlins due to a small fire in a nearby storage area.
Plumes of smoke were visible from the top level of the ballpark on the first base side.
Thankfully it was contained and the public address announcer informed the crowd it would not be necessary to evacuate all of Dodger Stadium. But unfortunately for the Dodgers, they ended up losing 6-1 that night to bring their record to 23-30.
Florida pitcher Edward Mujica earned the win after throwing two scoreless innings in relief. Dodgers starter Hiroki Kuroda didn’t fare well, throwing 5.1 innings and allowing five runs on 10 hits.
Kenley Jansen, who was pitching his first full season with the team, also appeared in the game and allowed one run in one inning of work.
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