This Time, Giants Rally for 4-3 Win : Dodgers Again Can’t Hold Lead; Clark Is Injured

After Eddie Murray’s 20th home run dropped into the right-field seats Thursday night, giving the Dodgers a 2-1 lead over San Francisco in the sixth inning, one question remained: How would the Giants come back this time?

In the seventh, with most of a quiet crowd of 24,896 at Candlestick Park wondering what was taking so long, the answer appeared.

Ken Oberkfell bounced a pinch RBI single, and Brett Butler followed by lining a two-run double as the Giants rebounded for the third straight night to complete a three-game series sweep with a 4-3 victory.

Holding a five-game lead over San Diego with nine games remaining, about the all the National League West leaders lack are new adjectives.

Said Oberkfell: “Amazing.”

Said Butler: “I’m smelling the gloves, I’m smelling the grass, I’m smelling the roses . . . I’m having such a good time.”

These Giants are becoming so giddy, they were walking around their clubhouse late Thursday night as if a certain All-Star first baseman wasn’t sitting in front of his locker with a bandage on his right knee.

Will Clark left the game in the third inning with a bruised knee after Dodger catcher Mike Scioscia fell on him following a first-inning home plate collision.

The National League’s co-batting leader with a .337 average should be back within a couple of days, which sounds better than he looked as he limped off the field.

“Will, you scared the heck out of us,” Giant owner Bob Lurie told him in the clubhouse.

“Didn’t mean to,” Clark said with a smile. “I could be back as soon as (today).”

The Giants’ seventh-inning work provided a fitting ending to three nights on which they overcame three Dodger leads in the fifth inning or later.

“It was like, not only did we feel we could come back, our opponents also felt it,” Butler said. “I know, because I felt it when the Dodgers did it to us last year.”

Dodger starter Ramon Martinez began the seventh with that 2-1 lead and confidence. After allowing an RBI double to Kevin Mitchell in the first--it was Clark who scored and then was smothered by Scioscia--Martinez stopped the Giants on three hits over the next five innings.

And in the bottom of the sixth, after Murray followed a Lenny Harris single with his homer off Kelly Downs, Martinez had worked out of a none-out, runners-on-first-and-third jam.

He struck out Mike Laga, got Kevin Mitchell to pop out and made Earnest Riles foul out.

But Matt Williams led off the seventh with a single up the middle. Terry Kennedy followed with a sacrifice bunt that Murray fielded and threw late to second, making both runners safe.

After Donell Nixon pinch-ran for Kennedy, pinch-hitter Chris Speier’s bunt forced Williams at third base.

But then pinch-hitter Oberkfell singled to right, his 14th pinch hit of the season, tying him for the league lead and scoring Nixon from second with the tying run.

“Shoot, we were just down one run with three innings to go,” said Oberkfell with a smile. “We knew we were still in this game.”

After Scott Garrelts ran for Oberkfell, reliever Ray Searage replaced Martinez. Two pitches later, the Giants took the lead as Butler doubled into the left-field to score both runners.

Moaned Searage: “The little pest.”

Responded Butler, who is hitting .284 and considered the top leadoff batter in the league: “I’ll take that compliment. When I first joined this team, Mike Krukow told me he used to hate to pitch to me because I would foul off 15 pitches and then get a hit to left field. That’s fine. I relish that role.”

Butler said he and the rest of the Giants also relish the pressure.

“It’s something all of us dream of,” he said, “to get up there with a chance to get the big hit. Everyone in our clubhouse wants to be in that situation now.”

Scioscia’s ninth homer, in the ninth inning off reliever Steve Bedrosian, made things closer. But all of the comebacks in the house had already been taken.

Dodger Notes

In the aftermath of Wednesday’s stunning 8-7 loss, Jay Howell, who allowed four of the five runs in the Giants’ ninth-inning rally, said he’s not going to touch a baseball for several days. Afer compiling an 0.75 earned-run average in his first 49 appearances, he has a 14.40 ERA in his last three apperances, including blowing two wins for Fernando Valenzuela and another for John Wetteland. “I’m a little bit tired right now, and I have to be smart enough to step away from it,” said Howell, who hasn’t appeared in this many games (53) since 1985.

Orel Hershiser, hit in the right foot with a line drive Tuesday night, has been limping. He said he still plans to start against San Diego at Dodger Stadium Sunday, keeping alive one of baseball’s more remarkable streaks. In his six-year career he has never missed a start--Sunday will be No. 190. . . . The Giants set a new season club attendance record of 1,934,717. . . . The Dodgers have drawn less than that figure only five times in their 28 years in Dodger Stadium.