Dodgers Escape With Win : Baseball: For once, luck is with Morgan in 3-2 victory over Phillies. Mets are next.

As usual whenever Mike Morgan pitches, the Dodgers lived on the edge again Sunday.

But this time luck was on Morgan’s side and the Dodgers beat the Phillies, 3-2, before a Veterans Stadium season-high crowd of 44,160, leaving town taking two of the three-game set. The Dodgers scored the go-ahead run in the eighth with three consecutive singles that broke a 2-2 tie.

Then reliever Jay Howell withstood the Dodgers’ continuing fielding follies to strand a man on third in the ninth and save it for Morgan.

While the middle of the lineup continues to struggle, the Dodgers put together a 12-single attack.

Second baseman Juan Samuel drove in the first run to tie the score, 1-1, in the fifth, and shortstop Alfredo Griffin had run-scoring singles in the sixth and eighth innings.

Third baseman Lenny Harris also provided a boost, singling and scoring in the sixth and eighth, and catcher Mike Scioscia got two key hits as well.

The Dodgers got back to .500 at 12-12 and improved to 2-3 on this trip, which finishes with two games in New York, where the swirl around Darryl Strawberry’s return threatens to overshadow the on-field proceedings.

Strawberry went 0 for four Sunday and struck out twice, so he will take a one-for-21 slump that includes 12 strikeouts into Tuesday night’s game at Shea Stadium.

“This was a very, very, very big win,” Harris said of Sunday’s game. “We’re trying to finish at least .500 on this road trip. We don’t look for Darryl to do everything. We just keep battling and going out there and fighting so we can be contenders. That’s what we feel like.”

The Dodgers don’t always look the part, committing another error Sunday and dropping two outfield flies that were charitably scored triples, but they managed to get up after tripping themselves.

Morgan (3-2) lowered his earned-run average to 1.40, but he had his usual run of bad luck early, falling behind 1-0 in the fourth inning when Samuel misplayed Mickey Morandini’s grounder--his fourth error in a week--to put runners on first and second with none out.

But for a change, Morgan caught a break: The next batter, John Kruk, grounded to Samuel, who missed a tag as Morandini passed, then got the out at first. But umpire Gary Darling ruled Morandini went out of the basepath and called a double play, blunting what might have been a bigger inning, and Morgan escaped with the one-run deficit. Replays showed Morandini barely swerved from the ball.

Phillie right-hander Jason Grimsley made the run stand until the fifth, when Brett Butler singled and stole second and Samuel singled him home. The Dodgers took the lead in the next inning on two-out singles by Harris, Scioscia and Griffin, who was in a four-for-34 slump before his two hits.

The Phillies tied the score in the seventh when Charlie Hayes flied into the gap in right-center and Strawberry and Butler tripped each other, the ball falling off Strawberry’s glove for a triple. The next batter, John Morris, singled in the run.

The Dodger threesome of Harris, Scioscia and Griffin combined hits again in the eighth for a 3-2 lead against Joe Boever (1-2).

Harris singled with one out and took third on Scioscia’s single. Griffin followed with his second run-scoring single, this one a fly to short center that eluded Dykstra’s dive.

“It was a lucky hit,” Griffin said. “I thought it was in there, but (Dykstra) got such a good jump, he scared me. I was praying he wouldn’t catch it.”

Things appeared to be unraveling again for the Dodgers in the ninth when Strawberry dropped Morris’ long fly at the right-field wall for a leadoff triple.

But Howell retired Wally Backman on a liner to left, Dale Murphy on a sharp grounder to third and Lenny Dykstra on a groundout to first for his second save.

“Bad luck, good luck, whatever, I’ve been on the other end of it my whole career,” Morgan said. “Jay really bowed his neck and got the job done.”