Split Takes All the Joy Out of First-Game Win : Dodgers: Scioscia’s home run gives them a 4-3 victory, but Pirates take second game, 3-1. The Braves move within one-half game.

The most remarkable thing about Mike Scioscia’s game-winning home run against the Pittsburgh Pirates in their first game Friday was not that it was Scioscia’s second homer in more than three months.

It was not that Scioscia had spent the last three games sitting in a training room trying to heal his aching right foot.

It was not that the home run allowed the jubilant Dodgers to win the first game of a trip for the first time in nearly five months.

The most remarkable thing about the ninth-inning home run was how quickly the Dodgers forgot it.

Less than three hours after their 4-3 victory, they were shaking their heads and staring at their shoes after a 3-1 loss in the second game left them with a split with the Pirates before 44,224 at Three Rivers Stadium.

What Scioscia so dramatically created, Pirate pitcher Zane Smith wrecked with a three-hitter that gave him his first victory over the Dodgers since June 16, 1988.

The Dodgers’ lead over the victorious second-place Atlanta Braves was cut to one-half game.

“After we won the first game, I really wanted to win the second game,” Manager Tom Lasorda said quietly. “Was I pleased to get a split after winning the first game? No.”

Protested Kal Daniels: “At least it’s better than losing two. I think all these long faces are not because we split, but because we are tired. I mean, we just flew across country and played two games.”

Eddie Murray, their hottest hitter and home run hero Wednesday, missed both games because he has been bothered by a mildly sprained left ankle, which is also causing him pain in his lower back. Daniels missed the first game because his sore knees don’t do well in doubleheaders on artificial turf.

Darryl Strawberry might as well have missed both games, because he went hitless in seven at-bats with four strikeouts, including three in which he did not swing at strike three. In the two games, he looked at a total of eight strikes.

Brett Butler had one hit in nine at-bats. Juan Samuel had two hits in eight at-bats. And while Lenny Harris made the play of the night with a leaping catch of a foul ball in the seats along the third base line, his error led to two unearned runs against pitcher Kevin Gross in the second game.

“We just need everybody in the lineup, it’s that simple,” Strawberry said. “When Eddie is not behind me, I get pitched different. We just need everybody in there at their best.”

It might seem as if a doubleheader split at the home of the team with the best record in baseball is strictly a good thing, considering that the Dodgers won one of two after losing 16 of their previous 20 games on turf.

But Orel Hershiser offered a different perspective.

“The thing is, if we win, we are 1 1/2 games up on the Braves, and when they play that extra game, all they can do is get within one game of us,” he said. “But now they would have a chance to play that extra game and tie us.”

Said Scioscia: “If there was ever a time not to look beyond the next out, beyond the next pitch, it is now.”

At least one notable person agrees. That was owner Peter O’Malley watching from behind the dugout Friday, looking unruffled as ever. Chances are he enjoyed the first game better than the second, even if he did see the benefits of his winter investment for Gross, who gave up only three runs, one earned, in seven innings.

Still, the second game was all but over after Steve Buechele’s grounder bounced past Harris for a fourth-inning error. Jose Lind singled in one run and Orlando Merced’s grounder scored another.

But that first game . . . even though the go-ahead run was scored with a nice, quick line drive in the ninth inning, winning the game nearly drove the Dodgers crazy:

--They led, 3-1, until John Candelaria allowed two runs in four batters after replacing Ramon Martinez in the eighth inning.

Gary Redus singled under Alfredo Griffin’s glove, Andy Van Slyke singled to left, and Bobby Bonilla doubled down the right-field line.

Candelaria was replaced by Roger McDowell. But after McDowell walked Barry Bonds intentionally to put runners on first and second, he fell behind 3-and-0 to Buechele.

And the strategy Lasorda was plotting?

“I was thinking about the various bridges I was going to jump off,” Lasorda said. “I was tell (coach) Billy Russell to get my will together.”

McDowell, who says he even scares himself sometimes, settled down to throw three consecutive strikes to Buechele, the last one coming as Bonilla attempted to steal third. With a perfect throw by Scioscia, the Dodgers had an inning-ending double play.

“Sometimes I have no idea what is happening to me out there,” McDowell said. “Sometimes I feel good. Other times, I feel like I looked tonight.”

--With one out in the top of the ninth, Scioscia drove a 3-and-1 pitch over the right-field seats to make it 4-3.

It was his sixth run batted in since Aug. 1. He had hit .205 in 73 at-bats since that date. He had missed the last four games with a sore right arch.

McDowell sent the Dodgers’ dugout into a near panic again in the ninth inning.

He walked leadoff hitter Cecil Espy on four pitches. Two outs later, with Espy on third base, he walked Redus on four pitches. Then he fell behind 2-and-0 to Jay Bell.

Lasorda was talking to himself. Rather loudly. And guess who heard.

“I told Tommy after the game, ‘It’s amazing when you are out on the mound how much these walls (behind the dugout) echo,’ ” McDowell said. “If Tommy thinks he is aging when I pitch, I’m out there aging myself.”

But after a chat with pitching coach Ron Perranoski about mechanics, McDowell induced Bell into hitting a sinker to shortstop to end the game.

In his last four appearances, McDowell is 3-0 even though in 6 2/3 innings he has given up eight hits with five walks.