Victory Is Just Beyond Dodgers’ Reach, 4-3

The ball left Carmelo Martinez’s bat and hung in the night air for a split second, and that was it.

That was when Dodger center fielder John Shelby decided to go for it: A diving catch, a game-saving catch.

With two out and two runners on base in the bottom of the ninth inning Friday night, that was when Shelby decided to end this one-run game with the San Diego Padres.

And so he did. As the ball fell to the ground in left-center field, he dived and he missed.

Shelby ended it--with the Padres dancing in the dugout, reliever Jay Howell frozen on the mound and the Dodgers losing, 4-3, on a two-run double by Martinez.

“You hate to lose a game like that,” said Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda, who watched it all collapse after his team had gotten the first two outs in the bottom of the ninth. “(Shelby) had to do what he thought was best, but you can’t let the ball get behind you,’

Moaned Shelby: “I have to catch that ball.”

Thus fate, which wrecked the struggling Padres one inning earlier when the Dodgers took a 3-2 lead on a bad hop and a wild pitch, took its biggest swing for them all season.

“It was a good pitch . . . on my way to first I was praying,” Martinez said. “I don’t think (Shelby) made a good play on it. The ball got away from him. When it’s that close, you should try to keep it in front of you. I was happy he did (what he did).”

Here’s how it started: Tony Gwynn had grounded out to first base, and Keith Moreland had struck out looking.

Then, on four pitches, Howell walked John Kruk. Six pitches later, on a full count, Howell walked Benito Santiago, who had walked only once in his first 162 plate appearances this season.

Martinez was asked if he had ever seen the free-swinging Santiago take a full-count pitch?

“Not many times,” Martinez said.

Said Howell: “I don’t want to make any excuses, I screwed up the game.”

With runners on first and second, up stepped pinch-hitter Martinez, batting .200 with 10 RBIs. He knocked Howell’s first pitch to shallow center field, but then the ball suddenly drifted to left-center.

Stunned, Shelby and left fielder Kirk Gibson both gave chase.

“I got a good jump on the ball, but then it got in the lights,” Gibson said. “I never saw it till it hit the ground. The ball was placed very well.”

And, Shelby agreed, the goat horns have also been placed very well--on his head.

Said Shelby, who also went 0 for 4 to end his 24-game hitting streak: “You either let it drop, or you go for it. When it came off the bat, it looked like it was hit harder, so I dove. It was a judgment call. I thought it was close enough to dive.”

No matter, call it the Padres’ biggest hit of the season.

“It was a nice win for us, the guys didn’t fold up their tents,” Padre Manager Jack McKeon said. “A couple of walks certainly helped. The guys are patient now. They’re realizing things like that (walks) can turn a ballgame around. They’re not up there swinging to see if they can do it themselves.”

The Dodgers took a 3-2 lead with a run in the eighth.

Mike Sharperson, a defensive replacement at shortstop, led off the inning with a grounder that took a bad bounce over shortstop Garry Templeton’s head for a single off reliever Mark Grant. Sharperson moved to second base on a wild pitch and scored on a two-out single by Mike Marshall on the first pitch from reliever Lance McCullers, who ended up getting the win.

The game started as a pitching struggle between Dodger Tim Leary and Padre Andy Hawkins.

The Dodgers had taken a 2-0 lead in the fifth on run-scoring singles by Jeff Hamilton and Dave Anderson, who are replacing Pedro Guerrero and Alfredo Griffin.

The Padres came back to tie it with two runs in the seventh, the tying run coming off reliever Jesse Orosco, who has a tender elbow and had not pitched in nine days.

Entering the seventh, Leary was rolling along with 16 straight shutout innings against the Padres this season, with his most recent start against them being a three-hit blanking in Los Angeles April 18.

He had survived the first three innings, despite allowing one hit in each, with an inning-ending double play in each. In the fourth, he even survived Steve Sax’s seventh error of the season--a bad throw to first--that put Gwynn on second base with two out. Moreland hit an 0-and-1 pitch into the dirt in front of Sax for the third out. Leary retired the next six batters and entered the seventh strong.

Five pitches later, strength became strain. He had walked Roberto Alomar on a 3-and-1 count, and the crowd was on its feet. Up stepped the slumping Gwynn, hitting .241 at the time with only six extra base hits all season. Make that seven. He lined a pitch into the right-field gap, beyond the reach of Marshall and to the wall for a double, with Alomar stopping at third. A Moreland grounder later, one run had scored and Gwynn was on third.

Out came Leary, and in came Orosco, who had allowed two runs in two innings in his last appearance, June 1 in New York. This time he fared just as poorly; it just didn’t take him as long.

Kruk hit his third pitch to right field for a run-scoring flyout. Six pitches later, Santiago doubled to left, and Orosco was gone. Only Alejandro Pena and a ground-out by Chris Brown on an 0-and-2 pitch saved the Dodgers. Temporarily.

Dodger Notes

Dodger pitcher Fernando Valenzuela was fitted with goggle-type “athletic glasses” Thursday and may wear them in his next start, Tuesday in Atlanta. Valenzuela wears wire-rimmed glasses when he hits but not when he pitches, because he had not found glasses that allowed him to see out of the corner of his eye. These new wraparound glasses would correct that problem. “It’s up to Fernando whether he wears them,” said Fred Claire, Dodger executive vice president. “But he did show a lot of interest in them and says he is going to test them.”

It’s Him Again Dept: Outfielder Jose Gonzalez returned to the big leagues during the middle of a season for the fourth time in four years Friday. This time he came from triple-A Albuquerque, N.M., to fill a spot vacated by Pedro Guerrero, who went on the 15-day disabled list Thursday with an aching back. Gonzalez is glad he’s here but at the same time is treating it like, who are they kidding? With his .326 average in triple-A--and 4 homers and 15 total extra-base hits in 58 hits--he knows he can play somewhere in the major leagues. But with the Dodgers’ talent and depth, he knows it may not be here. “All I ever think about is being a Dodger, that’s all I ever wanted to be when I grew up,” said Gonzalez, 23, a native of the Dominican Republic. “But I know I can do it, I can play in the major leagues, and if not here, then with some other team. I don’t want to be in triple-A year after year (this was his third season at Albuquerque). Somehow, I have to get out of there.” Gonzalez will originally serve only as a pinch-hitter and defensive replacement, but as Steve Sax reminded from the other side of the clubhouse Friday, he has to be ready for anything. “There are certain things he has no control over, and he can’t worry about those things,” Sax said. “He has to keep the faith, keep thinking that something will break, and you never know, one day it will. Just by being here, he’s getting exposure. People around the league know that he’s here for a reason.”

Shortstop Alfredo Griffin has returned to his home in the Dominican Republic on family business and won’t rejoin the club until Wednesday in Atlanta. Griffin, on the 21-day disabled list, is not expected to return to the lineup for as many as 21 more days.