Piazza Injures Wrist in Latest Dodger Loss : Baseball: Giants win, 7-2, and the catcher is sidelined until the weekend after being hit by pitch.

The Dodgers want to believe the San Francisco Giants.

They want to believe it was an accident, an inside fastball that hit all-star catcher Mike Piazza’s left wrist in the first inning, putting him out of the game and sidelining him at least until the weekend.

And the Dodgers want to believe that after being pummeled, 7-2, Tuesday night by the Giants, in front of a paid 38,386 at Dodger Stadium, the Giants will be just as inspired when they play against the Colorado Rockies.

Then again, these are the Giants, and no one in the Dodger clubhouse was gullible enough to believe that their San Francisco counterparts don’t care who wins the National League West.

“Obviously, I’m not trying to throw at anybody,” said Giant pitcher Mark Leiter, “regardless of what anybody thinks. I tried to go inside, and it got away.”

Piazza was hit above the wrist on an inside fastball. The ball then bounced up and hit him in the lower lip, and Piazza crumpled to the ground in pain.

“When I saw him lay down,” Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda said, “then it really scared me. Really a great time for that to happen . . . sheesh.”

Piazza remained in the game long enough for Eric Karros to fly out to center, but then was removed. He told Lasorda that he had no feeling in the wrist.

Piazza, who’s hitting .358 with 30 homers and 86 runs batted in, was taken to Centinela Medical Center for X-rays that proved negative. He is scheduled to be re-examined today by Dr. Frank Jobe.

A prolonged absence could be devastating to the Dodgers (70-63), who remained one game ahead of the Houston Astros in the wild-card race. The Dodgers went 9-17 during Piazza’s absence earlier this season when he had a strained hamstring for four games and sat out 22 games because of a broken left thumb.

“It’s not good timing,” Karros said, “but you can’t do anything about it. I don’t know if they were trying to hit him or not. You can speculate all you want.”

Leiter (10-10), winless in his last four starts, leads the league in hit batters with 16. He also hit Roberto Kelly in the eighth inning.

“I tell you one thing,” Leiter said, “that messed me up. I was thinking about it all night.

“At first, I thought I hit him in the neck. It scared me. You don’t want to see somebody important miss any time.”

Perhaps the biggest surprise was that the Dodgers didn’t retaliate.

Should they have?

“Well, I’m not a pitcher,’ Karros said, before walking away.

The Giants were scoreless in 23 innings against Hideo Nomo (11-6) this season, and had only four hits in 23 innings. This night, they ripped into him for seven hits and six earned runs in five innings. Nomo, who had 31 strikeouts in his first three starts against the Giants, had three strikeouts and walked five.

“The problem was not my [cracked] nail,” Nomo said, “it was everything else.”

So, how nice was it to knock off the Dodgers, finally beat Nomo, and leave Lasorda squirming?

“I don’t care who wins it,” Giant Manager Dusty Baker said. “If it ain’t us, it doesn’t matter.”

Said center fielder Deion Sanders: “I just want to win, period.”

The Giants, who scored two runs in the first inning off Nomo, had a 3-0 lead in the top of the third when the Dodgers slowly came back. Brett Butler hit a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the third, and Delino DeShields had a two-out, run-scoring double in the fourth, cutting the lead to 3-2.

Just when the Dodgers were starting to feel good about themselves, heartened by the fact that the Rockies, who lead the division by 1 1/2 games, were losing and the Houston Astros, wild-card contender, already had lost, along came the fifth.

Nomo opened it by retiring Barry Bonds and Matt Williams. He got ahead of Mark Carreon on a 0-and-2 pitch, then Carreon singled to right. Glenallen Hill singled to center. But then Nomo walked Royce Clayton, loading the bases.

Kirt Manwaring, the No. 8 hitter who had been hitless in 10 at-bats against Nomo, hit a drive into the left-field corner. By the time Kelly’s throw came in, the bases were cleared, and Manwaring had a three-run double.

Nomo, who has won only one of his last six starts, left for a pinch-hitter in the fifth. “If nothing else,” said Williams, “there’s a lot of pride at stake. We’re not trying to spoil anything, but this rivalry has been around a long time. We’ll play just as if we have a chance.”

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Batting Race

A look at how the battle between the Padres’ Tony Gwynn and the Dodgers’ Mike Piazza for the National League batting title is shaping up:

Player: Gwynn

AB: 495

H: 181

AVG: .366

(Tuesday: 3 for 4)

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Player: Piazza

AB: 397

H: 142

AVG: .358

(Tuesday: Hit by pitch)