Cardinals Beat Gross Again, 5-4 : Baseball: L.A. wastes a 4-1 lead during the sixth inning. St. Louis is 15-4 against Dodger pitcher.

It was a the sort of duel that makes baseball a game for the ages.

The young hitter against the veteran pitcher. The kid trying to establish himself against a man who has seen many kids like him before.

During the bottom of the eighth inning of the Dodgers’ 5-4 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals, pinch-hitter Dave Hansen stepped off the bench with the bases loaded, two out and a chance to tie the score.

But standing in his way was 6-foot-6 Lee Smith, who has more saves in his career than Hansen has at-bats in his.

Hansen swung at the first pitch. Foul ball. Then another foul. And another.

Hansen’s bat broke, so he hustled back toward the dugout for new bat, and returned to the plate.

Another foul ball. And another. And another broken bat.

Again Hansen retreated toward the dugout, for his third bat of the battle. He took Smith’s sixth pitch for Ball 1, then he hit his sixth foul.

Finally, he popped to second baseman Tim Jones to end the inning and end the Dodgers’ best chances before 42,902. Smith threw eight fastballs; Hansen took seven swings.

“That was like Bob Welch against Reggie Jackson,” said Cardinal Manager Joe Torre, who had been ejected from the game during the fourth inning. “The kid looked scary the more he swung his bat . . . but the Big Guy does not give in.”

Afterward Smith, who got his fifth save by retiring Todd Benzinger, Darryl Strawberry and Eric Davis in the ninth, finally did give in.

He smiled.

“Hansen doubled off me last year in the only other time I faced him, and it was the same thing,” he said. “In two at-bats, I think I’ve thrown him 30 pitches. But I guess this makes us even.”

Smith was as impressed by Hansen’s ability to battle.

“The man will not get walked many times this year,” he said. “He was cutting and slashing and if he had gotten a hit, my respect would have gone to him.”

Hansen shook his head like a weary fighter and said, “Man got my two best pieces of lumber. He can be pretty intimidating, but that just makes me more jacked up. I gave it my best shot.”

Much earlier, Kevin Gross had walked to the mound with the best earned-run average of any Dodger starter. But the Cardinal hitters walked to the plate thinking about a different set of statistics.

Soon the fans saw how different, as Gross (0-3) lost to St. Louis for the 15th time against four victories. Gross’ 2.75 season earned-run average was overcome by a 5.11 ERA in his career against the Cardinals. This became a 5.25 ERA after he gave up five runs and 10 hits in five innings. He faced two batters in the sixth.

“On paper, it looked like I got my butt kicked, but I thought I pitched well,” Gross said. “There would be a flare, and then there were times the ball seemed out of reach of everybody. It’s hard to keep control when things are going like that.”

The Cardinals got to Gross in the fifth inning with a rally that typifies his luck. It started with two out, on rookie pitcher Donovan Osborne’s first major league hit.

With Osborne (2-0) standing uncertainly on first base, the Cardinals followed with consecutive singles by Ray Lankford, Ozzie Smith and Milt Thompson. The hits by Smith and Thompson made the score 4-3.

The Cardinals took the lead in the next inning, putting two more runs on Gross’ slate even though he faced only the first two batters.

After Pedro Guerrero singled to left and Bernard Gilkey grounded a hard single up the middle, Gross was gone.

In came Tim Crews, in the unfamiliar position of having to hold a lead. He wasn’t hit hard, but it didn’t matter. After two infield hits, the score was tied.

Rex Hudler had the first hit with a perfect bunt. With the bases loaded, Tom Pagnozzi then hit a hard grounder that third baseman Mike Sharperson did well to knock down with the back of his glove. A run scored, and all runners were safe.

Steve Wilson, who had suffered the loss against the San Francisco Giants Sunday by giving up four hits in the 11th inning, was then given a chance to regain his confidence by replacing Crews with bases loaded and none out.

Craig Wilson’s sacrifice fly scored the go-ahead run, then Wilson retired Lankford on a grounder for the second out. After Ozzie Smith was walked intentionally to load the bases again, Wilson struck out Thompson to end the inning.