Dodgers Escape Pirates in Eighth : Baseball: L.A. scores twice to make a winner of Gott, 5-4. Pittsburgh plays game under protest.

Because of baseball’s rule book, Jose Lind lost a home run, the Pittsburgh Pirates lost a run and the Dodgers won a one-run game for a change Monday.

Lind’s second-inning shot over the head of left fielder Tom Goodwin was first ruled a home run, then a ground-rule double, and he was stranded on third in the Dodgers’ 5-4 victory before 21,991 at Dodger Stadium.

As Lind circled the bases on what appeared to be his first home run of the season, third base umpire Charlie Williams circled a finger in the air in agreement.

Williams was quickly joined by Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda and, almost as quickly, by the other three umpires. After the discussion was moved away from Lasorda, it was ruled the ball had bounced off the top of the wall and been knocked into the stands by Goodwin, whose eagerness to get the ball into his throwing hand belied his ability to make a barehanded play.

Mike LaValliere scored on the play, but Lind was sent back to second base.

Pirate Manager Jim Leyland objected to the point of playing the game under protest.

“It’s a situation where the rule says that if it hits off a player and goes over the fence, it’s a home run,” said Leyland, referring to Rule 6.09g.

“It doesn’t mention hitting the wall first. The umpire interpreted that if it hit the wall first, it’s a double.”

Perhaps as irritating to Leyland was the play of the Pirate infield during the seventh and eighth innings.

A botched double play during the seventh gave Todd Benzinger a chance to hit, and he doubled in Dave Hansen to tie the score, 3-3.

Hansen had been safe at second base when Lind bobbled Mitch Webster’s grounder.

And during the eighth, Brett Butler slid under Orlando Merced’s high throw to the plate, breaking the tie with “the ugliest slide in baseball,” Butler said.

Mike Scioscia followed with a single to score Eric Karros with what became the winning run after the Pirates scored once in the top of the ninth inning.

Jim Gott (2-2) was the winner in relief of Orel Hershiser.

“It’s nice to win a one-run game,” Gott said. The Dodgers are 15-33 in such games.

“That’s one thing that’s on everyone’s mind,” Gott said. “I think it’s been pounded into everyone’s head.”

Denny Neagle (4-6) was the loser in relief of Bob Walk, who has not lost to the Dodgers since 1986.

“He pitched well enough, but we didn’t get him enough runs or make the key hit,” Leyland said.

Walk had been the beneficiary of some foiled Dodger strategy and at least one key hit during the fifth inning.

With one out and Jay Bell on second base during the fifth, and with the Pirates owning a 2-1 lead, an angry Barry Bonds was walked intentionally. Bonds threw his shinguard away on ball one and shook his head while he talked to himself for the rest of the pitches.

The strategy made sense, the Dodgers walking Bonds, who has 21 home runs and 70 runs batted in, to pitch to Merced and his .235 batting average.

Wrong.

Merced grounded a single up the middle to score Bell for a 3-1 lead that was cut to 3-2 in the bottom of the inning.

That came when Hershiser singled with two out, stole second and scored on Jose Offerman’s double barely inside the first base bag.

The stolen base was the result of inattention, Walk ignoring Hershiser in winding up and pitching to Offerman. On the throw to second, the ball slipped from LaValliere’s hand and sailed into short center field, where Lind caught it on the fly.

To finish the incongruity of the inning, Offerman’s hit was touched by a fan in the right-field corner, robbing him of a try for a triple.

The Dodgers had taken a 1-0 first-inning lead on Karros’ run-scoring double to the left-center field wall.