Dodgers Run Wild, Still Win : Baseball: Despite strange plays, they rally to defeat Phillies, 4-3. Worrell gets the save.

They kept their manager squirming on the bench, and even made three outs at the plate in one inning, something Tom Lasorda said he had “not hardly” seen before.

But in a wild seventh inning, the Dodgers still managed to score the decisive runs in a 4-3 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies on Tuesday night at Dodger Stadium before 28,194.

“These guys are all doing their job and when they make mistakes, they make up for them with desire and effort,” Lasorda said. “I like their attitude and the way they help each other and battle back.”

Down 2-0, the Dodgers tied the score in the sixth when Eric Karros singled in Tim Wallach and scored on a single by Jeff Treadway.

Then came the seventh, an inning in which all three Dodger outs were made at the plate. The Dodgers scored twice to move ahead, 4-2, but the wildest moment came at the end, when the Phillies made a 9-2-3-5-2 play to abruptly stop a rally and send scorers into puzzlement.

“I wasn’t too happy, “ Lasorda said. “Poor Henry (Rodriguez), to see a guy slip, I thought he hurt himself.”

With the bases loaded and one out, Jose Offerman scored on a single by Rodriguez. Eric Karros then grounded back to reliever Heathcliff Slocumb to force Mike Piazza at the plate.

Then, it got tricky.

Raul Mondesi hit a line drive to right field, which scored Tim Wallach. But Rodriguez, also trying to score, fell rounding third base. Right fielder Wes Chamberlain threw to catcher Darren Daulton, and Rodriguez, scrambling to his feet, went back to third. But Karros and Mondesi were running full bore, and when they saw Rodriguez stumble, they went into retreat.

“There was nothing I could do but stop,” said Karros, who was two for four. “I saw (third base coach Joey) Amalfitano waving Henry in, so I just put my head down and kept running. But we were up 4-2, so it wasn’t like we didn’t score any runs.”

Daulton threw to John Kruk to try to get Mondesi, or somebody, and Kruk threw to third baseman Dave Hollins, who realized by then that Rodriguez was headed for home, so Hollins made the throw to the plate for the third out.

“If we would have lost, it would have been tough,” said Wallach, who scored two runs.

For the Dodgers, whose last seven losses have been by two runs or less, a two-run lead in the eighth inning doesn’t provide a very secure feeling.

So when the Phillies came back to score a run in the eighth, Lasorda put the ball in Todd Worrell’s hands. Worrell retired the side in order to earn his second save. Gary Wayne (1-2), who relieved starter Kevin Gross to start the seventh inning, earned the victory.

“The Phillies had opportunities to score and we did too, but when they had the bases loaded in the sixth inning and Kevin got out of it, that was the key,” Wallach said.

Gross, who has made four starts and still doesn’t have a decision, held the Phillies to two runs, but it could have been much worse.

In a wild sixth inning, Gross loaded the bases when he walked Darren Daulton, took off Milt Thompson’s helmet with a pitch high and inside and saw Treadway boot Kevin Stocker’s routine grounder. But Gross pitched out of that jam, coming back to strike out Ricky Jordan, who was pinch-hitting for Greene, and popping up Lenny Dykstra.

“It made it exciting,” Gross said. “I threw too many pitches, but we battled and I kept it close and we won. I would love to have as many wins as I can, but we win as a team and that is the most important thing.”

Against Philly starter Tommy Greene, the Dodgers stranded six baserunners in the first five innings and in four of those innings, they had runners in scoring position. Each team stranded 10 baserunners.

Greene made his first start since April 7 and held the Dodgers to three hits through five innings. Greene, who had been sidelined with shoulder tendinitis, gave up four walks, two in the third inning, but the Dodgers didn’t take advantage.

“We knew we would get them eventually,” Karros said.