Dodgers Hang On to Win : Baseball: Piazza has four passed balls, but Hansen’s pinch-hit, two-run single in eighth beats Padres, 6-4.

This game may not go down in the record book, but you can bet it will go down in Mike Piazza’s memory. Piazza had four passed balls Saturday night, but the Dodgers pulled the game out anyway, beating the San Diego Padres, 6-4, before 35,363 at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

Piazza, who had only four passed balls the entire season, had trouble for the first time trying to catch knuckleballer Tom Candiotti. But Piazza wasn’t the only one who had trouble Saturday night.

The Padres, who lead the league in errors, added one to help the Dodgers tie the score at 3-3, and then another costly misplay helped the Dodgers go ahead for good after the Padres had taken the lead at 4-3.

The Dodgers began the eighth inning with three singles off reliever Roger Mason (0-4), with Jody Reed scoring Cory Snyder to tie it at 4-4. Former Dodger Billy Bean, who fielded Reed’s line drive to right, made a bad throw to the plate that allowed the runners to move up, and Dave Hansen, pinch-hitting for Omar Daal (1-1), sent a line drive to center that scored Eric Karros and Reed.

Piazza doesn’t have to worry about setting the record for passed balls. That belongs to Patrick Dealey of Boston, who had 10 in 1886. In the modern era, the record is six, set by Gary Vickers of Cincinnati in 1912.

“It’s the nastiest knuckleball Candiotti has thrown,” Piazza said, shaking his head. “Once I dropped a couple, I started getting tense. I just wasn’t relaxed. In the later innings, I didn’t even want to call it. I kept calling for the curveball, and he kept adding knuckleball.”

Entering Saturday’s game, Piazza ranked third in the league in catcher’s fielding percentage with one error in 53 games. His four passed balls ranked him in the middle of the pack.

And until Saturday, Piazza had only two passed balls in Candiotti’s 11 starts.

Then came Saturday, when Piazza had four passed balls, three from Candiotti and one from Pedro Martinez.

It was Piazza’s fourth passed ball of the game that helped break a 3-3 tie for the Padres in the bottom of the seventh inning, but it was Martinez who put the runners on first and second when he gave up back-to-back singles. With none out, Jeff Gardner squared to bunt and Piazza got crossed up, the ball bouncing off his shin guards and the runners moving up. Craig Shipley, who replaced Ricky Gutierrez after Gutierrez made a two-run error that enabled the Dodgers to tie the score in the seventh, scored on a fly to deep center by Gary Sheffield.

The Dodgers, who scored a run in the sixth inning but left the bases loaded, came back in the seventh to tie it after Reed and Darryl Strawberry--pinch-hitting for Roger McDowell--hit back-to-back singles. Strawberry’s line drive up the middle knocked out Padre starter Andy Benes, who struck out nine Dodgers, a Padre season high, and held the Dodgers to five hits.

Against reliever Rich Rodriguez, Brett Butler singled to load the bases and Jose Offerman followed with a sharp grounder to second. Jeff Gardner fielded it cleanly, but Gutierrez couldn’t handle the throw, and Reed and Strawberry scored.

The Padres had taken a 3-0 lead in the third inning, but none of those runs were earned. Candiotti gave up back-to-back singles, but the rest of the damage was done when Piazza couldn’t get a grasp on three of Candiotti’s knuckleballs and Offerman had a throwing error.

Bean was in the game in place of Tony Gwynn, who led off the first inning with a single to center field and strained his right calf muscle when he dived back to first. Bean, who played in 51 games for the Dodgers in 1989, replaced Gwynn in right field. Bean was signed by the Padres as a free agent in December and called up Thursday from their triple-A club in Las Vegas, where he was batting .353 with seven home runs and a team-leading 40 runs batted in.

In the previous two games of the series, Gwynn had gone five for 10, including a home run, a triple and two doubles.