Padres’ Plantier Homers in 11th to Beat Dodgers

After 10 innings of work from pitchers named Martinez--on both teams--the Dodgers lost to the San Diego Padres, 4-3, in the 11th inning when Jim Gott gave up a one-out home run to Phil Plantier--the Padres’ fourth hit of the game.

The Dodgers’ Ramon Martinez had gone into the game with only two victories and six losses. He had not won since August 22 and had not gotten out of the third inning in either of his last two starts.

The Dodgers kept giving him leads and he kept throwing them back with lapses in control. In the third, he walked Padre pitcher Andy Ashby after retiring the first eight hitters, striking out four.

This did not hurt him, but a hit batter in the fourth did. None of the Padres had hit Martinez before he hit one of them, Ricky Gutierrez. A broken-bat single and a sacrifice fly and a 1-0 lead provided by Eric Karros’ 20th home run was gone.

The Dodgers quickly regained the lead, 3-1, in the fifth on three singles and a sacrifice fly. The key hit of the inning was by Martinez himself, a bounder up the middle off the hand of pitcher Ashby. It could have been an inning-ending double play had it been fielded cleanly.

The Padres tied the score in the sixth, taking advantage of an error by Karros at first. Martinez complicated the inning with a walk to load the bases and set up a score-tying fielder’s choice.

Ramon Martinez left after eight innings in which he gave up three hits, but gave up three runs--two earned--because of the error and ill-timed control trouble.

Pedro Martinez, the Padres’ Pedro Martinez, got the game into extra innings by facing seven Dodgers and retiring eight of them.

He got a double-play ball in the seventh and struck out the last five batters he faced in the eighth and ninth.

Pedro Martinez, the Dodgers’ Pedro Martinez, stopped the Padres in the ninth and 10th, giving up two walks, but getting double-play help.

Tom Lasorda had gone with regulars at the beginning, the exception being left fielder Billy Ashley.

“I want to see as much as I can of Ashley,” Lasorda explained. “If he can put the ball in play, he can be an awesome player. He can hit it out of the Grand Canyon.”

Like the Martinezes, Ashley was gone by the end, replaced by a Martinez in a double switch.