Dodgers Rally Off Beck : Baseball: They take 3-run lead against Giants in ninth, then hold on for a 7-6 victory.

The Dodgers wondered all day Wednesday how they could forget their traumatic loss the day before, and about the ninth inning they came up with the immaculate solution.

That’s why the Dodgers were the ones high-fiving their way across Candlestick Park on Wednesday night, winning, 7-6, and leaving the San Francisco Giants groaning into the night.

“Payback is a beautiful thing,” Dodger catcher Mike Piazza said.

The Dodgers were given up for dead in the ninth inning. They trailed by one run, 4-3, but it might as well have been by 30 runs.

The Giants had won 167 consecutive games when leading after eight innings, dating back to July 9, 1992. And on the mound was Rod Beck, who had saved a major league record 41 games in a row.

That feeling of invincibility was destroyed in a matter of minutes.

Henry Rodriguez opened with a single to center. Garey Ingram followed with a double to right, advancing Rodriguez to third. Suddenly, the announced paid crowd of 22,753 became fidgety.

Beck got ahead of pinch-hitter Chris Gwynn on an 0-and-2 count, but then watched as Gwynn singled up the middle, scoring Rodriguez and Ingram. The streak was over.

Three batters later, shortstop Jose Offerman broke the game open, hitting a two-run triple into the right-field corner for a 7-4 lead, giving him four runs batted in for the game.

Now, all the Dodgers had to do was protect a three-run lead.

Sound familiar?

Rudy Seanez, trying to close out the game, immediately gave up a walk and a single. He retired Tom Lampkin for the first out, but with runners on second and third and Barry Bonds coming to the plate, Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda summoned left-hander Omar Daal.

Bonds promptly singled up the middle, and the Giants had closed the gap to 7-6. That brought Todd Worrell into the game, and Bonds complicated matters by stealing second.

Worrell, saying he feels the best he has in two years, retired Matt Williams on a bouncer to the mound for the second out. Now, all that stood in his way was Glenallen Hill, whose homer in the eighth inning provided the Giants their 4-3 lead.

Hill hit a sharp ground ball to the right of first baseman Eric Karros. Karros snared the ball, flipped it to Worrell, and the Dodgers’ four-game losing streak was over.

The victory proved to be the perfect elixir to the Dodgers’ spirits after their 4-3, 15-inning defeat Tuesday night. The defeat had been so traumatic that Lasorda, who had a sleepless night, called a team meeting and demanded that his players forget all about Tuesday.

It proved impossible before they set foot on the field.

Reliever Greg Hansell, who blew the Dodgers’ 3-0 lead in the 15th inning Tuesday by yielding a three-run homer to Robby Thompson and a game-winning double to Williams, was busily apologizing to reporters for refusing to speak after the loss. The Dodger hitters still were blaming themselves for going 14 innings without scoring in the first place. And the Giants were still savoring the dramatic victory, replaying it on the scoreboard for the Dodgers to witness once again.

“It was devastating,” Hansell said. “I tried to get away from baseball, but when I went out to eat, there were the highlights on TV. I woke up this morning, and it was on the front page of all the newspapers.

“There are times like that when I wish I still was playing football just so I could take out my aggressions. Believe me, I would have tackled (Thompson) before he even got to first base.”

Even Lasorda, who has endured plenty of heartbreaking losses in his 19-year managerial career, had difficulty shaking off this defeat. His spirits weren’t uplifted, he said, until he received a call from former General Manager Al Campanis.

“It’s hard for me to leave it behind,” Lasorda said. “I had a tough time going to sleep, and then I woke up at 5 o’clock in the morning. I left to go out with some friends, but I no more wanted to go out than jump off the Golden Gate Bridge.

“But I told my players today, remember, it’s just one game. Don’t let that loss bother you. It’s a long season.”

Now, someone needs to relay the same message to the Giants.