The Air’s Fine Up Here

Feels so good to be back on top. This is how the Dodgers view the world today. This is how Ramon Martinez views it, in particular.

He pitched eight strong innings Monday night, hardly striking out a soul, but getting out every Colorado hitter when it counted. That included Larry Walker, whose ball was caught at the center-field wall, prompting Martinez to say later, “Oh, if that ball had been in Denver . . .”

First blood and first place go to the Dodgers, who defeated them Rocky Mountain men, 4-3, down in the ravine on opening night of the Big, Big Series. Embarrassed after losing to the Rockies, 10-1 and 9-4, in back-to-back starts against them, Martinez threw virtually nothing but a fastball, daring them to hit it.

“Warming up before the game, I feel so strong, I feel I can throw my fastball right by anyone,” Martinez said after his 17th and most satisfying victory of the season.

“When I get beat last time by them, I say, ‘OK, Ramon, you got to turn it around. You have to go change something.’ That game gave me the motivation I need. I say this time, they have to beat me with my best pitch.”

They did not.

Oh, they tried. They sure did try. Colorado Rockies baseball, a National League tradition for more than a 50th of a century, has a history of swinging until the very last pitch. But once Todd Worrell nailed down his Dodger-record 31st save in support of Martinez, the team atop the division was once again Los Angeles, like old times.

Everybody was a wee bit tight, it seems fair to say. Eric Karros, normally the most careful of first baseman, all but began the game by Bucknering a no-brainer grounder. And one of the most sure-handed of shortstops, Walt Weiss of the Rockies, played much of the night as though moths had eaten away the webbing of his glove.

Before the home team’s first turn at bat, the Dodger go-go boys, Brett Butler and Chad Fonville, bumped batting gloves in the on-deck circle, for luck. Their objective was simple: Slap, tap, punch, bunt or tomahawk-chop the ball, but make something happen . . . fast.

Butler then sauntered to the batter’s box, where he found Vinny Castilla, the third baseman for the Rockies, standing so close that he immediately knew what Vinny had for lunch. Practically daring the batter to punch one past him, Castilla could do little but dodge Butler’s bullet as it whistled by him.

Fonville then bunted. Fonville and Butler are forever bunting. These guys must bunt in their sleep. One of these days, either Fonville or Butler will become the first player ever to sacrifice on an intentional walk.

This particular one was rapped at pitcher Bill Swift, much too hard. But the peg to second base by Swift was low, and it squirted away from Weiss. The scoreboard flashed “ERROR 6,” bulbs that have just about burned out at Dodger Stadium by now.

Up stepped Mike Piazza, with two runners on base and nobody out, which, where Piazza is concerned, is the baseball equivalent of flipping two pieces of raw meat to a lion. The first pitch from Swift was whacked into right field, and around the bases peeled Butler and Fonville, like a 400-meter relay team.

But that 2-0 lead didn’t last. Two-run leads seldom do against Colorado.

Dante Bichette, who obviously (a) sold his soul to the devil, (b) ate his spinach during the winter, or (c) turned into the Hank Aaron of the Mountain Time Zone, cranked a home run in the sixth inning to put Colorado on top, 3-2, thus proving again to everyone’s satisfaction that Dante can crank ‘em any time, any day, any place.

After that, the only scares Martinez got were a slight pain in his back that made the trainer rush out to give him the once-over, followed by a fly ball by Walker that sent Butler back, back, back to the wall, the pennant potentially flying over his head.

Martinez said, “When I saw Walker hit this ball, I say, ‘Uh, oh. That has good chance.’

“In Denver, that ball would have gone . . . oh, almost 400 feet.”

Five hundred, someone said.

“Yes, 500,” Ramon agreed.

But it didn’t. It stayed inside the park. Baseballs do that here in Los Angeles, where the first-place air has never felt so rare.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

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: 520

H: 191

AVG: .367

(Monday: 3 for 5)

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Player: Piazza

AB: 419

H: 148

AVG: .353

(Monday: 2 for 4)