Wallach Hit Helps Dodgers Get Away With 6-5 Victory

It was a getaway day, all right.

The Dodgers got away with two more crucial errors, got away with giving up five unearned runs, got away with a starting pitcher who had nothing close to his no-hitter stuff and got away from this dreary home stand Wednesday afternoon with a fist-pumping, come-from-behind, 6-5 victory over the Houston Astros.

Then they got in their team bus and, relieved and much more relaxed than they had been only hours before, got ready to start a six-game trip.

“We were lucky we won,” said starter Ramon Martinez, who lost his chance at consecutive no-hitters before the game was six minutes old. “We gave them five runs.”

Without question, the first half of the game was ugly for the Dodgers--sloppy play spotted the Astros 3-0 and 5-2 leads, and the paid crowd of 37,350 at Dodger Stadium seemed prepared for the team’s fourth loss in a row and 11th in 14 games.

In the three-game series, the Dodgers gave up 12 unearned runs to the Astros, who hardly needed the help as the National League’s highest-scoring club.

But in a departure from the recent past, the Dodgers’ stretch run Wednesday was a rush of clutch hitting and, most breathtaking, a 250-foot snap throw by right fielder Raul Mondesi to double up pinch-runner Andy Stankiewicz at first base to end the game.

It was Mondesi’s major league-leading 12th outfield assist, and the other Dodgers said they can’t be surprised any more at Mondesi’s long bombs.

“I saw the runner go three-quarters of the way [to second after Jeff Bagwell’s fly ball], and I thought maybe Mondy’s going backward and won’t be able to get him,” said catcher Mike Piazza, who broke a 13-game streak without a homer by hitting a two-run shot in the sixth.

“But once he was camping under it, I thought, ‘This guy’s in trouble.’ ”

Said Mondesi: “I don’t know what he was thinking--he’s got to think I have a good arm. But I like that, because I like to throw them out.”

The biggest play for the Dodgers (37-39), though, was the go-ahead, two-out double into the left-center-field gap by third baseman Tim Wallach in the eighth inning against Houston reliever Todd Jones. He drove in Mondesi and Eric Karros to give the Dodgers their 6-5 lead.

“I’ve been struggling, no question,” Wallach said. “I’ve struggled all day long, then I get a hit in the eighth and I feel great. That’s the way this game is.”

Wallach, who had only two hits in his 23 previous at-bats with no runs batted in or extra-base hits, said he was trying to take heed to a pregame speech by hitting instructor Reggie Smith--relax, be patient, just make contact.

“I think the young guys have been pretty good through this,” Wallach said. “I think us older guys are the ones who have been trying to do too much.

“We’re supposed to be the ones who show them how to go about it, and we haven’t done a good job at that. Hopefully, this will be the start of something good.”

For about five innings, Wednesday was the continuation of something bad for the Dodgers. Martinez, who blasted fastball after fastball past the Florida Marlins last Friday on his way to his first no-hitter, could not do the same against the Astros.

One run scored on a two-out error by second baseman Delino DeShields, who wasn’t covering second when shortstop Chad Fonville picked up a ground ball and scooped a throw to the bag in time for a force out. And the next batter, Craig Shipley, drove in two more with a single to make it 3-0.

The Dodgers scored twice in the third on RBIs by Piazza and Karros, but Houston left fielder Derrick May ripped a two-run homer deep into the right field bullpen in the fifth after center fielder Todd Hollandsworth dropped Dave Magadan’s fly ball to right-center.

That set the stage for Piazza, Wallach and Mondesi.

And, for the first time in a while, the big names came through for a team that had a 10-30 record in games when the opponent scored first.

“We needed something like this,” Manager Tom Lasorda said. “Maybe that will be the thing that ignites us. It has to come from something like this. It could be something that starts a winning streak for us.”