With Sole Lead in Big Jeopardy, Dodgers Deliver : Baseball: Slumping Samuel’s key hit in the ninth leads to a 4-3 victory. The Braves still trail by a game.

Cut through all the hugs and high-fives and head butts--”Yep, there was some guys so excited they were butting heads,” said Mitch Webster--and the message sent by the Dodgers to the rest of the league Monday night was clear.

You can only push them so far.

Two outs from giving up sole possession of first place for the first time in 100 days, the Dodgers stole a game in the ninth inning for only the second time this season by scoring four runs to defeat the Chicago Cubs, 4-3, before 31,149 at Wrigley Field.

The official winning hit was a two-run double into the right-center-field gap by a slumping Juan Samuel, who afterward was so happy he even talked to reporters.

Stranger still was what happened just before Samuel stepped to the plate:

--A single by Mike Scioscia, who was in a one-for-13 slump.

-- Consecutive surprise bunts by Lenny Harris and Webster.

--A single-turned-double by Brett Butler, who moments earlier had been joking with the umpire.

Afterward, in both the dugout and clubhouse, they held a celebration that perhaps shows they really do have something in common with their 1988 predecessors.

“The best win of the year for us,” said Butler, who had spent the night listening to fans screaming at him from the left-field bleachers as the scoreboard documented the second-place Atlanta Braves’ comeback victory over Montreal.

“All I heard tonight was, ‘Look at the Braves now , turn around and look at their score now ,’ ” Butler said. “Pretty soon they were shouting, ‘Hey Butler, you’re going to be tied with the Braves! You’re going to be tied!’ ”

That’s how it appeared when the Dodgers, who still lead the Braves by one game with 38 remaining, began the ninth, trailing the Cubs and Rick Sutcliffe, 3-0.

It would have been Sutcliffe’s first shutout in more than two years, since before he underwent shoulder surgery. And it would have been another disappointment for Orel Hershiser, who gave up three runs with five strikeouts in five innings but was hurt when shortstop Jose Offerman could not turn a double play, leading to two runs.

But Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda, who held his second team meeting of the season before the game, had other ideas.

“I was thinking, ‘Boy, wouldn’t it be nice to win this game!” Lasorda said. “I went up to Scioscia and reminded him, ‘You can’t hit a three-run homer with nobody on base.’ ”

Scioscia singled to left. Then Harris laid down a surprise bunt--and it was foul.

“I didn’t care,” Harris said. “With the high grass, this is a bunting ballpark. I was going to try it again. I’ll do anything and everything to get on base.”

This time the bunt was grabbed by third baseman Chico Walker, who bounced the ball to first base, allowing Harris to reach safely on the error.

After pinch-hitter Dave Hansen grounded to second, moving the runners to second and third, an obviously tired Sutcliffe was relieved by rookie Chuck McElroy, whose 1.61 ERA was lowest among National League relievers.

But McElroy is still a rookie. And when Webster suddenly bunted the ball toward second base, he was in no position to intercept it.

Webster, who failed on a similar play when he popped out Sunday in St. Louis, was safe and a run scored, moving the Dodgers to within 3-1.

Up stepped Butler, who fell behind 1-and-2 after McElroy threw what Butler thought was a questionable called strike.

Two pitches later, he hit a line drive to center field, then raced to second base while the ball died in the grass. With the score 3-2, it was time for Samuel, who in this game had been returned to his familiar second spot in the order for the first time since Aug. 15.

And the happy No. 2 hitter quickly drove a ball to the wall for the third hit in his last 20 at-bats.

“I was really surprised when I came in today and saw I was batting second again,” Samuel said in his first full post-game interview this season. “I’m glad I came through today, but I have been coming through in that spot in the first half of the season. . . . I knew some day, things would change for me. I have been fighting myself.”

Samuel said that keeping him in the second slot may be the key to breaking him out of his slump.

“Hitting second, you concentrate more, you have more responsibilities, you really got to be focused,” Samuel said. “You bat seventh or eighth, it’s just different.”