Slam Isn’t So Grand for Dodgers in Loss : Baseball: Benzinger’s bases-loaded homer in the ninth inning gives them a lead that they blow. Pirates win, 6-5.

The Pittsburgh Pirates danced away from their latest thriller and up the tunnel to their clubhouse, bouncing off concrete walls with shouts and laughter.

The Dodgers, walking silently up a separate tunnel several yards away, tried not to listen.

“Hearing a team celebrate like they just won a division title, hearing them rub it in like that . . . it tears your heart out,” Lenny Harris said.

If that heart was still there after 79 previous losses, it is gone now.

In 15 minutes Friday, the Dodgers traveled from the heights of a ninth-inning comeback victory to the depths of a 6-5 loss before 30,341 at Three Rivers Stadium.

One moment, the Dodgers were celebrating Todd Benzinger’s pinch-hit grand slam that gave them a 5-3 lead in the top of the ninth.

The next moment, they were staring in disbelief when Don Slaught capped a three-run rally in the bottom of the ninth with a game-winning single to right field that bounced off Bill Ashley’s mouth .

While Ashley stood frozen with pain, Orlando Merced scored from second base to give the Pirates their 19th victory in their final at-bat.

“You see how fast I’m dressing?” Benzinger said in the Dodger clubhouse. “That’s because I want to get out of here.”

In more than one way, the Pirates kicked the Dodgers in the teeth.

After the rally that should have given them only their third ninth-inning comeback victory, three Dodger relievers combined to allow three runs on three hits, a walk and a botched grounder.

Even the would-be hero was not exempt. Benzinger botched the grounder that allowed the tying run to score.

Jim Gott was the losing pitcher after the bullpen’s 14th blown save in 38 chances.

The Pirates scored their first run in the ninth inning after reliever Steve Wilson walked the second hitter he faced, Barry Bonds.

Bonds stole second and scored on a single by Jeff King against Gott. Then Merced singled, moving King to third.

The Dodgers, staring listlessly at the ground, seemed resigned.

“Nothing against any of our pitchers, but when we went out there in the ninth inning, I had the feeling that there were going to be guys on base,” Benzinger said.

With Jay Howell pitching, Mike La Valliere hit the grounder to Benzinger, who wanted to throw to second base to start an inning-ending double play.

After he dropped the ball, he decided to throw home, but the throw was wide and late, allowing King to score.

Benzinger was playing first base for first time in more than month and only the third time since June 16.

But in terms of discomfort, that could not compare to Ashley’s. He was playing on AstroTurf for only the second time as a professional.

After Howell struck out Cecil Espy, Ashley learned the first lesson about turf when Slaught lined a ball that dropped in front of him.

Ashley might have thrown out Merced at the plate, but he never got a chance. The ball bounced off the turf and hit him in the left side of his jaw, causing it to swell.

“The ball got to me before I got to it,” said Ashley, who lost a fly ball in the wind in his other outfield start for the Dodgers, Wednesday. “I guess I’m trying to get everything done in my first week.”

Overshadowed was the Dodgers’ fifth pinch-hit home run against the Pirates, who have allowed 10.

Benzinger’s blast against reliever Bob Patterson followed walks to Eric Karros and Mike Piazza and pinch-hitter Darryl Strawberry’s infield single.

“Right after the home run, everybody was going, ‘Oh no, we had a game and lost it,’ ” Slaught said. “But by the time we got to the dugout, we knew what we had to do.”

The first thing, one suspects, was make sure the Dodgers didn’t leave.