Pirates Can’t Slap Down Hot Dodgers : Baseball: Showing shades of 1988, they rally behind Webster’s homer and Harris’ grit. Streak at 6 in a row.

PITTSBURGH — Like the other five, this one was too special to leave in the hands of strangers.

So when the guy in the sweat shirt in the seats near the dugout lunged for Barry Bonds’ foul ball as it drifted in that direction the ninth inning here Monday night, Lenny Harris lunged back.

“He slapped me on the side of my head,” Harris said. “But I kept my eyes on the ball.”

Soon those eyes, all eyes, were on his glove, where the ball softly landed for the final out of the Dodgers’ 8-6 victory. Everybody should know that by now, knocking down these Dodgers requires more than a slap.

Bonds, the potential tying run, stalked back to the dugout while Harris skipped into the arms of teammates after the Dodgers’ had extended their winning streak to six games with the comeback victory over the Pirates before 12,346 at Three Rivers Stadium.

After 36 days of looking up, the Dodgers are finally back at .500, at 23-23. Never has one team felt so good to break even.

“It is thrilling to see this momentum,” Harris said.

There is more than momentum at work here.

When you take a 4-0 lead, fall behind, 6-4, after five innings because of six walks by your pitchers, then retake the lead on Mitch Webster’s three-run pinch-homer in the sixth inning on the first pitch from a guy he has never faced . . . something strange is happening.

Tom Lasorda, Dodger manager, has a label for it.

“1988,” Lasorda said. “This reminds me of the 1988 club. It really does.”

This does have one thing in common with that magical year. This is their longest winning streak since they won seven in a row in late 1988, a streak that eventually clinched the division title.

From Mike Scioscia’s second-inning hustle that might have caused catcher Don Slaught to miss a relay to home plate, to Scioscia’s fierce block of home plate that stopped the tying run four innings later, to Harris’ steal of the foul ball, the Dodgers are beginning to look like more than a baseball team.

Fighters, perhaps?

“I knew this could happen, because we were losing so many one-run games early,” said Lasorda, referring to his team’s one victory in its first 11 one-run games.

He elaborated: “It’s like if we’re fighting, and I got you beat for 11 rounds, then you sucker punch me and knock me out. Then the next time, I got you for 13 rounds, and you cut my eye and I lose.

“I guarantee you, the next time we fight, there ain’t gonna be no sucker punch and you ain’t going to cut my eye. I know I’m good enough to win, so we do.”

Even when their first two pitchers are wild enough to lose.

Bob Ojeda continued to be hurt by his recent habit of issuing walks, allowing four runs, three earned, with four walks in 3 1/3 innings. The Dodgers’ early 4-0 lead became a 4-4 tie after Ojeda walked consecutive batters in the fourth inning, including Orlando Merced with the bases loaded.

Then the Pirates took a 6-4 lead when Steve Wilson walked Bonds with one out in the fifth, then intentionally walked Slaught and watched them both score on Jose Lind’s double that fell from Todd Benzinger’s outstretched glove.

Ojeda has walked a team-high 37 batters in 55 2/3 inning, a ratio of six walks per nine innings. He had allowed three walks per nine innings in his previous 12 seasons.

“All of a sudden I’m getting squeezed by the umpires, and I’m getting tired of it,” said Ojeda, who has made a career out of hitting the corners. “Next time it happens, you’re going to see me snap.”

The Dodgers were hoping to close the gap against rookie reliever Denny Neagle in the sixth inning when pinch-hitter Mike Sharperson drew a one-out walk and Jose Offerman singled.

Up stepped Webster, who had hit two homers during nine consecutive starts earlier this year, but did not complain when returned to the bench.

“I have seen a lot of guys, but not him,” Webster said of Neagle. “I just was looking for something slow. Maybe a curveball. And I got it.”

After he quickly ran through a line of regular handshakes and hugs on the bench--”I don’t know those new handshakes, I just like to hit it, run the bases, and get out of there,” he said--Jim Gott took over.

Gott, who has not allowed an earned run in his last 11 innings, allowed one hit in three innings for his first victory.

He was saved not merely when John Candelaria retired Bonds with a runner on first base to end the game, but when Scioscia blocked Orlando Merced from scoring from third on a grounder to second baseman Harris--he switched to third later in the game--in the sixth.

“Tonight it looked bad for a second and then, boom,” said Eric Karros, who had three more hits. “We’re not finished yet.”