Braves Wring Out Dodgers in 11 : Baseball: Gant’s two-out line drive puts Atlanta back in first place by half a game as L.A.’s 2-0 lead wilts after rain delay, 3-2.

As with any good fight, even those that last six hours and involve 41 people, this one ended with somebody hitting the ground and somebody else glowering over them.

As with any good fight, the winners hugged and screamed amid deafening cheers while the losers walked away as if their feet were cement.

And as with any good fight, the losers did not know what hit them.

“The Atlanta Braves are for real,” Brett Butler said quietly Saturday night. “There is no doubt.”

Any doubt was eliminated by a line drive off the bat of Ron Gant in the 11th inning that hit the left-field wall and beat the Dodgers, 3-2, Saturday before 44,773 at Atlanta Fulton County Stadium.

In a game that was delayed by rain for 1 hour 19 minutes in the first inning, then delayed again by high drama, the Braves moved back into first place in National League West by half a game over the Dodgers.

But after 4 hours 10 minutes of actual baseball featuring thousands of fans shaking red rubber tomahawks in the stands and dozens of turning points on the field, the standings weren’t the only things that changed.

So, too, have the roles of these two teams, who meet four more times during the final three weeks of the season, beginning with the rubber match of this three-game series today.

The Braves, whose offense came back from a 2-0 deficit while their pitching held the Dodgers hitless in the final 4 1/3 innings, can no longer be viewed as youngsters one step from stumbling.

The Dodgers, who scored two runs in the first 10 minutes and no runs in the ensuing five hours, can no longer be considered a veteran team that cannot possibly falter.

“A lot of people have said we would fold under the pressure because we’re a young team, which isn’t really true,” Gant said.

“I think we proved again today that we can play under pressure. I think the Dodgers know that.”

Do they ever.

“This thing is going down to the wire,” Butler said. “It’s going down to the last two or three days. Maybe even the last day.”

This game went down to the last out in the 11th inning after an unusual set of circumstances had loaded the bases against relief pitcher Roger McDowell.

With two out, McDowell had given Jerry Willard, a .111 hitter, his first major league walk since 1987.

“I’m exhausted,” Willard said.

With Terry Pendleton batting, the Dodger outfielders played him deep to prevent a ball to the gap, and shifted toward right field, where the switch-hitting Pendleton often pulls the ball when batting left-handed.

Pendleton promptly hit a fly ball to left field. Mitch Webster could not run it down after a lengthy chase, and Pendleton had a double that moved pinch-runner Keith Mitchell to third.

“Ball hit in the Bermuda Triangle,” McDowell said.

Darryl Strawberry thought something else was strange.

“If anything, we were playing too deep. Pendleton is not going to hit a ball hard against a sinkerball like McDowell throws,” said Strawberry, who went hitless in five at-bats. “And Pendleton always tried to hit the ball the other way.”

After an intentional walk to David Justice to load the bases, there could be no second-guessing about the hit by Gant, who had been retired by McDowell with runners on first and second in the ninth inning.

Gant drove a 1-and-1 pitch off the left-field wall.

The Braves bounced around the field, and rubber tomahawks bounced off the backstop and dugout tops and seats. The Dodgers walked away dazed.

“We knew we were in a dogfight. We said we were in a dogfight, and now everybody can see that,” Strawberry said.

McDowell is already weary from the fight. Because bullpen closer Jay Howell has been sidelined for 11 days because of a sore right elbow, McDowell was pitching for a fourth consecutive day.

During that time he has pitched seven innings, which is as many as any Dodger starter has in that span. Then again, he has given up only three hits in those seven innings, with only one ball hit hard.

“But that happened to be the last hit,” McDowell said, shaking his head.

McDowell combined with five other relief pitchers to hold the Braves to two runs in eight innings after starter Tim Belcher, still bothered by a pulled groin, walked six and gave up one run in 2 2/3 innings.

But none of the Dodger pitchers could overcome the Dodger offense, which faded immediately after the rain delay in the bottom of the first inning.

John Smoltz, the Braves’ starter, combined with three relivers to hold the Dodgers scoreless, with veteran Jim Clancy getting the victory with two hitless innings.

“That delay killed us,” Strawberry said. “We win the big game Friday, we come out and jump on them right away today . . . and then it stops.”

The only time the Dodgers had runners in scoring position in the final eight innings--runners on first and second with two out in the 11th--Webster flied out to left.

But the Braves never stopped. After they tied the score on Justice’s single in the fifth inning, they forced the Dodger bullpen into rescue operations in the sixth and ninth.

“If this were a football game, the Braves would have been on the five-yard line the whole game,” said Kal Daniels, whose two-run triple over the outstretched glove of Gant in center field had given the Dodgers the lead.

Tim Crews got Pendleton to fly out to left to leave the bases loaded in the sixth inning. Then, with runners on first and second and one out in the ninth, John Candelaria struck out Justice and McDowell got Gant to ground out.

“They kept coming and coming,” Daniels said. “We kept stopping them until. . . .”

Tim Crews got Pendleton to fly out to left to leave the bases loaded in the sixth. Then, with runners on first and second and one out in the ninth, John Candelaria struck out Justice and McDowell got Gant to ground out.