Black’s Back, Dodgers Lose : Baseball: In second start of season, he gives up only two hits in seven innings as the Giants hold on, 3-2.

The San Francisco Giants came to Dodger Stadium Monday night on a mission.

Although the season hasn’t reached the halfway point, there is the possibility of a strike and a shortened season.

The Giants were 6 1/2 behind the Dodgers in the West and knew they had to win the three-game series. A sweep would be wonderful they reasoned, but two victories were a necessity.

The first part of the mission was accomplished, largely because of Bud Black, a veteran pitcher coming off of the disabled list.

The left-hander, 36, in only his second start of the season, pitched seven strong innings and the Giants won, 3-2, before 43,281.

Black, in his first start Wednesday, went a solid six innings. Coming right back with two-hit ball for seven innings, he has given Manager Dusty Baker’s riddled pitching staff a big lift.

When Delino DeShields opened the eight with a crisp single to left, only the Dodgers’ third hit of the game, Baker brought in his bullpen ace, Rod Beck.

Beck staggered to his 14th save, but not before Mike Piazza hit a booming home run, a two-run smash that reached the seats in the left field bleachers before left fielder Barry Bonds could turn toward the fence.

The Giants, who have not been hitting much all season, didn’t batter the fences against Tom Candiotti, but a two-run double by Royce Clayton in the first inning gave Black a working margin.

After elbow and knee surgeries last fall and this spring, respectively, Black doesn’t throw as hard as he once did, but he earned his first victory in nearly a year.

Piazza had a chance to pull it out for the Dodgers, but with runners on first and third in the ninth, he made the final out on a foul pop to first baseman Todd Benzinger.

Said Baker, who has three pitchers on the disabled list and other pitchers hurting: “When Buddy struck out Piazza with the bases loaded in the third inning, I thought maybe our luck was changing.

“That’s two good outings by Black. What a lift he’s given us. If he gets DeShields to open the eighth, he would have faced Piazza again. But I couldn’t wait.

“I don’t like to bring Beck in that early, but we don’t have our setup guy, Mike Jackson, he’s one of those on the disabled list.

“This was too important a series for us to hold Beck back. We have to win this series.”

Black, who was 8-2 and helped get the Giants off to their fast start last season, has had a rough time since last August. First, there was elbow surgery that finished his 1993 season. When he tried to come back in the spring, a knee operation kept him out until last week.

“I’m really feeling pretty good,” he said. “But I walked too many to call this a good performance. And I certainly wouldn’t want to make a living facing Mike Piazza with the bases loaded. I got him this time, but you see what he did to Rod.”

Perhaps, in the early innings, at least, Candiotti deserved a better fate. Although the Giants weren’t hitting him hard, the knuckleball veteran found himself trailing, 3-0, after three innings.

With a little sharper fielding by the Dodgers, he could have escaped in both the first and third innings.

In the first, the Giants had runners on first and second with one out when Matt Williams bounced sharply to the new shortstop, Rafael Bournigal. Instead of an inning-ending double play, however, the Dodgers got only a force at second.

DeShields, after getting the force, wheeled quickly, but his throw to first was in the dirt and Eric Karros couldn’t come up with it.

Candiotti walked Dave Martinez to load the bases and give Clayton the chance to bat. The shortstop made the most of the opportunity, ripping a two-run double down the left field line.

Manager Tom Lasorda, who saw the Dodger lead over Colorado shrink to three games and the margin over the Giants to 5 1/2, said the game turned on that play.

“When we didn’t make the double play on Williams, that was the game,” he said.

Then in the third, Bonds, who scored one of the first inning runs after drawing a walk, opened with a single and wound up scoring an unearned run. Bonds stole second, went to third on a passed ball, and, after a walk, scored on a force out.