Dodgers Let It Get Away, Then Win It : Baseball: Butler scores one for team unity in ninth after bullpen loses 5-0 lead to Mets. Nomo is sharp.

It didn’t cost Dodger center fielder Brett Butler a dime, but in a single evening Thursday, he staged one of the most brilliant public-relations campaigns in America.

Butler made up with teammate Mike Busch, told him his feelings were nothing personal and then went out and became the hero in the Dodgers’ 6-5 victory over the New York Mets in front of a paid crowd of 41,997 at Dodger Stadium.

After the Dodgers blew a 5-0 lead in the top of the ninth inning, Butler scored the winning run in the bottom of the ninth, turned toward the dugout, received a bearhug from third-base coach Joe Amalfitano, and there was Busch waiting.

This was the guy who was a replacement player this spring, crossing the imaginary picket line. He represented everything Butler despised in the ugly labor war. Yet, as Butler told the world Thursday, they also happen to be teammates.

Without a moment of hesitation, Busch raised his hand, and there was Butler, jumping up and slapping palms.

The fans loved it. They stood cheering Butler and Busch, and the way they figured it, might have been celebrating Day 1 of an honest-to-goodness pennant race.

The victory, only the fifth in the last 14 games for the Dodgers (61-56) enabled them to reclaim first place in the National League West, half a game ahead of the Colorado Rockies.

Perhaps Butler will never understand anyone who crossed the picket line this spring. Maybe people will never understand Butler’s hard-core union views. But from now on, Butler and Busch will be genuine teammates, sharing in the same dream to bring a World Series to the Dodgers.

“That’s all I ever wanted,” Butler said. “I want to help the Dodgers win a World Series. That’s what I’m here for.”

This is why Butler decided to reconcile with Busch. He walked up to Busch in the clubhouse Thursday afternoon and tapped him on the left shoulder. He wanted to talk. They went into the trainer’s room to talk in private.

They spent five minutes together. Busch explained why he became a replacement player, needing to ease some debt while proving to management he’s a big league player. Butler told him it was nothing personal, but he simply was against the entire replacement-player concept.

Butler then asked if Busch still wanted to talk to the rest of the team. Busch did. They closed the clubhouse after batting practice. Busch explained his decision. Several Dodgers voiced their complaints.

They told Busch that while many still will resent him for his decision, beginning this day, they will respect him as a teammate.

“We accept Mike,” Butler said. “We will pull for him when he goes to the plate. He’s just as much a part of this team as anyone else.

“You have 27 different people in there and they’re going to individually accept, reject or whatever may be the case with Mike. But I can tell you collectively in the clubhouse, as well as on the field, that Mike will be just like anybody else on this team.”

The Dodgers didn’t figure they’d need Butler’s heroics in the ninth. They were getting ready to celebrate Hideo Nomo’s 27th birthday in style.

Nomo, showing that his arm is fine, yielded only two hits in 7 1/3 innings. His 11 strikeouts give him 205, the first Dodger with more than 200 since Ramon Martinez in 1990. Nomo left with a cracked fingernail on his right hand. No big deal.

Yet, the Dodgers couldn’t close out the Mets. They scored five runs in the ninth on five consecutive singles and Joe Orsulak’s sacrifice fly.

Butler, receiving a mixed chorus of cheers and boos when he stepped to the plate in the ninth, led off with a single down the left-field line. He stole second and went to third on Jose Offerman’s single to left.

Met pitcher Jerry DiPoto intentionally walked Mike Piazza, bringing up Eric Karros. Karros hit a soft liner to shallow center field. Center fielder Ryan Thompson caught the ball, Butler retreated to the bag, but Thompson then dropped the ball, picked it up and dropped it again.

Butler took off running and didn’t stop until he was mobbed by his teammates.

Yes, for all of the fans to see, they actually looked like a team again.

The Dodger players, wanting to prove to the public that there will be no further problems, staged their own news conference earlier in the day. Busch, who got his first major league hit with a pinch-hit single in the sixth, was flanked by teammates Butler, Karros and Piazza.

Karros and Piazza had had a private meeting Tuesday with Fred Claire, Dodger executive vice president, in an attempt to reconsider his decision to bring up Busch. The entire team tried to persuade Claire to reconsider in a clubhouse meeting later Tuesday. And Butler was among a small group of players who talked long into the night Wednesday with Manager Tom Lasorda about Busch.

Claire refused to relent, and the Dodger players, quickly realizing that the situation was spinning out of control, decided they had no choice but to accept Busch.