With Zack Greinke outdueling Madison Bumgarner, Dodgers feeling October-festive

It was Dodgers wrestling Giants, Zack battling Bum, hope fighting despair, Chavez Ravine swaying and sighing, and after all the calamities of the summer, you’ll never guess what happened.

A blue streak happened. A blue swagger happened. A stadium screaming itself blue happened.

If the first-place Dodgers win the National League West in a month, it might have been decided here Tuesday night in a 2-1 victory over the chasing San Francisco Giants.

“It was a great team win,” said struggling Joc Pederson, who launched his 24th homer despite the awkwardness of batting ninth. “We needed it.”

The victory gave the Dodgers a hefty six-game lead in the loss column with 31 games remaining. The victory gave the Dodgers wins in the first two games of this showdown series, with Clayton Kershaw lying in wait for Wednesday night’s finale.

But this wasn’t about magic numbers, it was about magic moments.

A twirling stop by a long-haired, red-bearded dude on his bobblehead night. A biting breaking ball by a long-haired twirler on his last pitching breath. And, finally, a lunging throw from the glove to save the game from a 21-year-old kid who has been a Dodger for all of about a minute.

You ever heard of Jose Peraza? You will, you will.

You remember what it can feel like around here during the best of Octobers? Folks here did on Tuesday night, when the long-missing buzz returned, when the best of $300 million finally showed up, when some folks maybe even dared to wonder if this postseason could be different.

The night began and almost ended with Greinke, who may have put one hand firmly around the Cy Young Award by winning this battle of titans with last season’s World Series hero Madison Bumgarner.

Through six innings, the men battled pitch for pitch, with the Dodgers leading, 1-0, only through the grace of a bloop, a walk, and an Adrian Gonzalez two-out line-drive RBI single in the third.

Then, in the seventh, things got crazy. But finally, finally, on a Dodgers team that has been bonkers since April, it was a good kind of crazy.

Greinke seemingly began to wear down. Brandon Belt knocked his 90th pitch into right field for a single. Buster Posey strolled to first base on his 95th pitch, a walk. Marlon Byrd took ball one, and suddenly there was quiet, breaths held, doom feared.

The Dodgers needed a giant blue moment. Byrd knocked a hard grounder to third base, and they found one, Justin Turner celebrating his bobblehead giveaway with a bouncing, twisting stop and throw that beat Byrd by barely a heartbeat, a play so close it required more than two minutes of replay examination to confirm.

Yeah, Turner was the night’s honoree, the guy surrounded by fans wearing fake red beards.

Greinke, energized by the play if not the brief break, settled down to strike out Alejandro De Aza on a curveball that froze him, then caused him to hop around in protest. Yeah, that was a Cy Young pitch. Two pitches later, Kelby Tomlinson flied to right field to end the threat and bring most of the 48,060 fans to their feet.

“Zack threw a great game today, he gave it his all out there,” Pederson said of Greinke, who is now 15-3 with an unreal 1.59 earned-run average, on pace to be the lowest in Los Angeles Dodgers history.

Greinke literally gave it his all in the eighth when, with one out, he allowed three consecutive singles, with Matt Duffy rocking a line drive to center on Greinke’s 114th pitch to drive in a run. That’s the most pitches Greinke had thrown since July 19, his second-most this year, and, finally, to boos from the crowd, Don Mattingly walked out to remove him.

If the Dodgers didn’t get out of this mess, Mattingly’s hot seat would be a fire hazard. But thanks to reliever Luis Avilan and Peraza — both of whom were acquired from the Atlanta Braves at the trade deadline — the Dodgers not only escaped, but did so with brilliance.

Avilan jammed Belt, who hit a grounder up the middle. Peraza lunged, grabbed the ball with his glove and, in the same motion, flipped it to Jimmy Rollins to start the inning-ending double play.

A Dodgers bullpen that has rarely worked, worked. A defense that has been the best in the league all season, worked again. Avilan pounded his fist. The fans pounded their hands. One inning later Kenley Jansen finished it up and now it’s probably safe to start thinking about how all of this will look in October.

“It’s huge,” Mattingly said when asked about his defense. “As you get into tight games, you need to make plays. You don’t want to give extra outs. You want to take advantage of every out, that’s what defense is.”

On a night they may have won the division one month early, the Dodgers hit their fans with a lot of definitions Tuesday, all of them about winning, each of them covered in blue.

bill.plaschke@latimes.com

Twitter: @billplaschke