Gott Ends a Battle of Martinezes : Baseball: Dodgers get only four hits, but hold off Expos, 3-2.

It was already a game with enough Martinezes--Ramon pitching for the Dodgers and Dennis starting for the Montreal Expos. All Thursday night’s game at Dodger Stadium needed was for Dodger reliever Pedro Martinez to come in from the bullpen, and the box score could get really confusing.

The Dodgers were leading, 3-1, in the eighth inning when Pedro Martinez got the call.

Pedro made the game interesting for the crowd of 40,368, giving up a run, then Jim Gott struck out the side in the ninth inning for his 17th save and a 3-2 Dodger victory.

Ramon Martinez (8-4) was relieved after Lou Frazier led off the eighth inning with a double. Pedro Martinez struck out the next two batters, but gave up back-to-back singles. Darrin Fletcher’s single to right scored Frazier and Moises Alou’s blooper to right put the tying run 90 feet away and the winning run on second base, after Tim Spehr had run for Fletcher and stolen second.

But Pedro came back, working Mike Lansing to a full count before striking him out swinging.

The game also marked the return of Todd Worrell and Jody Reed, the latter sorely missed after he went on the disabled list June 15. Before that, the Dodgers had a 20-6 stretch. Since Reed has been sidelined with a partial ligament tear in his left elbow, the Dodgers were 12-13.

Worrell has been sidelined for most of the season, and the Dodgers were missing what he might have meant to them if he would have been pitching.

When it was time for Worrell to close the game, though, it was Gott who got the call.

The Dodgers got only four hits.

When the Dodgers last left Dennis Martinez in Montreal, he was considering packing two suitcases for the All-Star break, because he thought he was going to be traded. At the time, the Expos were 12 games behind the Philadelphia Phillies in the NL East. Martinez, who will be a free agent at the end of the season, considered himself gone.

But then the Phillies started to lose a little, and the Expos were able to finish the first half 8 1/2 back. Suddenly, they were in the race, and Martinez was staying.

Martinez says his contract situation, in part, caused him to press at the beginning of the season, when he struggled to a 1-4 start. But Martinez managed to turn his season around, winning six consecutive starts since May 28, and eight of nine starts entering Thursday’s game.

Like his namesake with the Dodgers, Dennis Martinez (10-6) has the best record among his team’s starters. Ramon Martinez also struggled a little earlier this season, but after pitching coach Ron Perranoski worked with him, refining his mechanics, Martinez gained control of his fastball and settled in. His 7-4 record entering Thursday’s game included three complete game victories since May 23.

Brett Butler scored runs in the first and the third innings. Entering Thursday’s game, Butler had been on base with a hit or walk in 71 or his 84 starts and has gone consecutive games without a hit only twice this season.

He drew a leadoff walk from Martinez in the first inning, moved to second on a single by Jose Offerman, to third on a balk, and scored when Cory Snyder singled under the glove of shortstop Wil Cordero. Offerman made it 2-0 when he scored on a groundout by Mike Piazza.

It was the only inning Dennis Martinez struggled. After that he gave up only two more hits--one to Butler to lead off the third inning--before he was relieved by Tim Scott to start the seventh.

Butler’s run in the third inning was a result of two throwing errors by Cordero. He made a third error in the fourth inning, but it did not cost the Expos.

Montreal Manager Felipe Alou, who has been known to pull a player if he is having a bad night, didn’t have a choice with Cordero. With Larry Walker home in Vancouver with his wife, who gave birth to the couple’s daughter Thursday morning, Alou had started Frank Bolick at first base and put Mike Lansing at third base.

In the seventh inning, with the Dodgers leading, 3-1, the Expos loaded the bases on three hits, the final one a bouncer by Cordero back to the mound that Ramon Martinez couldn’t grab. John Vander Wal pinch hit for Dennis Martinez, and struck out. Delino DeShields grounded out to end the inning.

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