Dodgers 6, Angels 5

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) The Los Angeles Dodgers and Anaheim Angels are ready to begin the season. They better be, because there are no more dress rehearsals.

Paul Lo Duca hit a three-run homer to cap a four-run seventh inning as the Dodgers rallied to beat the defending World Series champion Angels 6-5 Saturday night in the final exhibition game for both teams.

Guillermo Mota, suspended for the first four games of the regular season because of his beanball bash with Mike Piazza of the New York Mets, earned the victory with two innings of two-hit relief. Eric Gagne pitched the ninth for his second save of the spring.

Dodgers starter Kazuhisa Ishii allowed five runs and six hits in five innings, finishing the spring with a 1-1 record and 3.94 ERA. The left-hander, who led the majors last year with 106 walks despite winning 10 of his first 11 decisions, is coming back from a head injury after a line drive by Houston's Brian Hunter knocked Ishii out of a game on Sept. 8.

Anaheim's Garret Anderson, in his first game at Edison Field since winning Game 7 of the World Series with a tie-breaking three-run double, opened the scoring with a three-run homer to right in the first. He led the team this spring with four home runs and 17 RBIs.

Benji Gil added a solo shot for the Angels, who begin defense of their first world championship on Sunday at Edison Field against Texas after finishing the spring 9-20-2. Last spring they were 17-15, then started the regular season 6-14 before finishing with a club-record 99 wins and a wild card berth.

``This year it's definitely going to be much tougher, with everybody watching us now. And if we don't keep that same intensity and focus, we don't have a chance,'' shortstop David Eckstein said. ``Last year we took it one game at a time, and that's the way we have to approach it this year.''

Trailing 5-2 after four innings, the Dodgers turned it around in the seventh with Jolbert Cabrera's RBI single and Lo Duca's second homer of the spring, a drive to center field on a 1-1 pitch from losing pitcher Ryan Cummings.

Anaheim starter Kevin Appier, who makes his season debut next Friday night at Oakland, left with a 5-2 lead after allowing five hits in 4 2-3 innings. He finished the spring 0-2 with a 5.63 ERA in seven starts.

Teammate John Lackey, who started and won the World Series clincher, starts Sunday's major league opener against Texas' Ismael Valdes to be followed in the Angels' rotation by Mickey Callaway, Ramon Ortiz, Appier and 18-game winner Jarrod Washburn.

Angels rookie reliever Francisco Rodriguez, whose first five big-league wins came in last year's postseason, had a 1.93 ERA and 20 strikeouts in 14 innings this spring. He fanned 13 in 5 2-3 innings after being promoted in September, then set a postseason record for relievers with 28 strikeouts in 18 2-3 innings.

The Dodgers ended their spring schedule with five straight wins and a 15-15-1 record. Hideo Nomo starts Monday's season opener at Arizona against five-time Cy Young winner Randy Johnson, as Los Angeles tries to end a six-year postseason drought.

Following Nomo in the Dodgers' rotation are Odalis Perez, Kevin Brown, Ishii and Darren Dreifort. Dreifort, in the third year of a five-year, $55 million contract, has pitched in only 16 regular-season games since the ink dried.

Dreifort hasn't started a regular-season game since June 29, 2001, because of a torn ligament and flexor tendon muscle in his right elbow that required reconstructive surgery.

``You start out every year with a vision,'' Dodgers manager Jim Tracy said. ``My first two years managing this club, we were trying to do some things under some very adverse circumstances because several key people were not going to have an opportunity to be along with us at critical junctures.

``But we're starting 2003 healthy, and that's something that I have not really had an opportunity to be a part of since.''< ^Notes:@ The world championship trophy is on permanent display with other World Series memorabilia in a glass case right next to the indoor entrance to the Edison Field souvenir store behind home plate. ... Angels 3B Troy Glaus returned to the lineup after missing six games because of tendinitis in his right wrist. The World Series MVP struck out twice, grounded into a double play and singled. ... Dodgers 1B Fred McGriff, who has homered in a major league-record 42 venues, gets another chance to add Bank One Ballpark to his list on Monday in the opener of a three-game series against the Diamondbacks. ... Adam Kennedy will become the first Angels player to start at 2B in consecutive season openers since Johnny Ray in 1989-90. ... The Dodgers have won all 12 night games they've played over the past two exhibition seasons.

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)