Passed Ball Does the Job for Dodgers : Baseball: Two runs score on Houston’s misplay, giving the bullpen a nice cushion in 6-1 victory.

Manager Tom Lasorda gambled on his much-maligned bullpen Saturday night at Dodger Stadium. It paid off and the Dodgers spent another night in first place.

With the bases loaded and two out in the sixth inning and the Dodgers holding a 2-1 lead over the Houston Astros, Lasorda sent in a pinch-hitter for Kevin Gross.

The hitter, Dave Hansen, didn’t even deliver a hit, but he was standing at the plate when catcher Tony Eusebio was the victim of a passed ball that let in two runs and led to the Dodgers’ 6-1 victory.

With the comfortable lead, rookie Ismael Valdes pitched two innings and Todd Worrell finished up in the ninth, sending an old-timers’ night crowd of 50,880 home happy and keeping the Dodgers in first place in the National League West for the 70th consecutive day.

Until Henry Rodriguez’s ground-rule double had given the Dodgers the 2-1 lead earlier in the sixth, loser Darryl Kile had pitched brilliantly.

When he went to a 2-and-2 count on Hansen, he threw a low fastball. Kile has 10 wild pitches, but this ball back to the backstop was ruled a passed ball.

Rodriguez scored easily, followed by a hustling Raul Mondesi. The rookie is in a batting slump, but he was alert and scored without a play from second.

The Dodgers scored twice more in the seventh on a sacrifice fly by Eric Karros and a run-scoring single by Rodriguez.

That put Lasorda in a position where he didn’t have to worry if his relievers could hold a one-run lead.

Gross had thrown only 70 pitches, but he backed Lasorda’s move.

“I wasn’t ready to come out,” Gross said, “but it turned out fine.”

Brett Butler said the two victories in a row over Houston had given the Dodgers a lift.

“We’re winning as a team again,” he said. “With only two weeks maybe left, the pressure is on the Giants to make up the game.”

Valdes, unless he’s used too much, might give the Dodgers the stopper they are looking for. In four innings in two nights against the Astros, he gave up only one run and two hits.

Lasorda showed he still doesn’t have complete confidence in his stopper. Worrell came in to pitch the ninth with a five-run lead, but there were two pitchers warming up.

It was obvious from the start that both starting pitchers, both of whom had struggled recently, were back in form.

Gross (8-7) came into the game winless in the month. In his three previous starts, Gross had two losses and a no-decision, giving up 24 hits and 12 runs.

But mixing his speeds and location, he seemed to baffle the Astros, the last team he beat, on June 26.

Gross didn’t give up a hit until a two-out single by Ken Caminiti in the fourth.

The lower end of the Astros’ order put Gross in his first jam in the fifth inning. Eusebio, the No. 7 hitter, singled to center and Orlando Miller, getting a chance to play shortstop after Andujar Cedeno’s two errors Friday night, singled to left.

But Kile was unable to sacrifice, the Dodgers turning his bunt into a force at third. Gross then disposed of Craig Biggio and Steve Finley to escape.

The versatility of Jeff Bagwell enabled the Astros to tie the score on only one hit in the sixth.

He opened with a single to left. Then, getting a huge jump on Gross, he easily stole second, his 15th steal. Bagwell went to third on Caminiti’s grounder and, even with the Dodger infield in, he scored without a play on Luis Gonzalez’s grounder to second.