Dodgers miss a golden chance

SAN FRANCISCO -- First place seemed to be within the Dodgers’ grasp Saturday night, much like the ball that bounced over the head of Brian Falkenborg, skipped past the glove of a diving Jeff Kent and drove in the go-ahead run for the San Francisco Giants.

By dropping the middle game of a three-game set at AT&T; Park by a 5-2 margin, the Dodgers remained in second place in the NL West, half a game behind Arizona.

Manager Joe Torre said he was aware of what was lost when the Dodgers’ usually reliable bullpen imploded in a four-run seventh inning for the Giants that blew a 2-1 lead.

“I always watch the scoreboard,” Torre said. “What else do you do when you’re sitting between innings?”

What Torre saw on the right-field wall was that Arizona fell to San Diego, 4-2. The sub-.500 Dodgers would have vaulted to the top of the division with a win.

By letting the Giants off the hook, the Dodgers (42-45) failed to pin Barry Zito with his 13th loss, which would have equaled the former Cy Young Award winner’s career high.

Zito (4-12), in the second season of a seven-year deal worth $126 million, won his first home game of the year by limiting the Dodgers to two runs and six hits over seven innings. The Giants were previously 0-9 at home on days Zito started, with Zito being 0-8 in those games.

“These guys have been so great on the team,” said Zito, who lost his place in the rotation in late April. “They’ve had my back the whole time, and I can’t even speak to how much love I have for these guys in this room because pretty much everybody else wrote me off, but these guys believed. That’s something you can’t put into words.”

Zito’s 10 strikeouts were his most in a Giants uniform.

“That’s certainly closer to the pitcher that he is as opposed to what you’ve seen earlier,” Torre said.

But as well as Zito pitched, Dodgers starter Chan Ho Park was in line for the win when Andy LaRoche hit for him in the top of the seventh.

The Dodgers scored twice in the first on Andre Ethier’s RBI double and Andruw Jones’ RBI groundout.

Throwing a season-high 91 pitches, Park limited the Giants to one run and three hits over six innings, lowering his earned-run average to 2.36 in the process. The run he gave up came in the sixth, when Aaron Rowand’s two-run double scored Ray Durham and cut the Dodgers’ lead to 2-1.

That set up the seventh, which the Dodgers’ bullpen entered having posted a 1.65 ERA in the previous 11 games.

Joe Beimel gave up a leadoff double to Jose Castillo, who reached third on a sacrifice bunt by Omar Vizquel.

Rich Aurilia hit for Zito and Torre called on Falkenborg to replace Beimel. Falkenborg struck out Aurilia, but gave up an RBI single to Fred Lewis and walked Durham. Randy Winn then hit the chopper up the middle that scored Lewis and put the Giants ahead 3-2.

Cory Wade entered the game and promptly gave up a two-run double to Bengie Molina.

“I didn’t do my job tonight and it cost us the ballgame,” Falkenborg said.

Most of the Dodgers didn’t know the result of the Arizona game and were disappointed when learning the Diamondbacks had lost.

“Oh really?” Park asked. “Arizona lost?”

Told that was the case, Park said, “Ohhhh,” then shrugged.

“Three more months left,” he said. “It’s going to be a lot of fun.”

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dylan.hernandez@latimes.com