Worrell Shows That He’s Back : Baseball: He beats Dodgers, 2-1, for first victory since 1989.

When the Dodgers’ Mitch Webster reached second base with one out in the ninth inning of a tie game Tuesday, Todd Worrell recalled an axiom that had helped him survive not only a tough game, but the two toughest years of his life.

“You know that even in a real bad situation, even when the odds are against you . . . it only takes one pitch,” Worrell recalled after the St. Cardinals had beaten the Dodgers, 2-1, in 10 innings.

Worrell found that pitch twice, retiring Brett Butler and Mike Sharperson on popouts. Then he calmly watched as Tom Pagnozzi hit a two-out single in the top of the 10th inning to win the game before 26,940 at Dodger Stadium.

One small comeback belonged to the Cardinal team, which trailed the Dodgers, 1-0, after the third inning before tying the score in the fourth.

But a much larger comeback belonged to Worrell, the Cardinals’ pitcher from Arcadia who recorded his first victory since Sept. 3, 1989.

Worrell, who missed virtually two years because of elbow and shoulder surgery, threw two scoreless innings with pitches that reached more than 90 m.p.h., amazing his manager and teammates even more than their two-game sweep of the Dodgers here.

“This is one of the all-time comebacks,” Cardinal Manager Joe Torre said. “To throw that hard is nothing short of a miracle.”

The Cardinals began their 10th-inning offensive with a single to left field by Todd Zeile against loser Jim Gott, who had just taken over for Roger McDowell.

Zeile was bunted to second by Tim Jones. Bernard Gilkey struck out before Gerald Perry was intentionally walked.

Pagnozzi singled up the middle to give the Cardinals the lead. Lee Smith then retired Darryl Strawberry, Eric Davis and Todd Benzinger to record his sixth save.

The Dodgers have lost three consecutive games for the second time this season and fell alone into last place in the National League West. The Dodgers are 1-7 in one-run games.

“(One-run games) are driving me crazy,” Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda said.

Worrell knows about crazy. Not only did Tuesday mark his first victory in more than two years, it was the first time he had thrown as many as two innings in a major league game since then.

In 11 innings this season, covering 10 appearances, he has yet to allow an earned run and has struck out 12.

“You ask me if it’s worth it now, and, yeah, sure,” Worrell said. “But if you asked me that a year ago, I might have had a different response.

“A lot of frustrating days. A lot of days when I just wasn’t every happy. But there were a lot of people praying for me, and tonight, a lot of people are happy for me.”

The Dodger highlights were two things that have been scarce lately: defense and strong pitching by Ramon Martinez.

Before the game Martinez had only one impressive start in four tries and a 4.37 earned-run average, high among starters. In his last two starts, he had allowed eight runs in 14 innings.

But, perhaps for the first time since last July, he looked like the old Martinez, with velocity and the ability to pitch his way out of trouble.

In seven innings he allowed four singles and a double, striking out a season-high five and walking four while stranding nine runners. Martinez also struck out three batters in one inning for the first time in recent memory.

The Dodgers scored in the third inning when Darryl Strawberry drove home his 15th run in his last 11 games with a two-out single.