Dodgers at Least Feel Like Winners

The Dodgers may have lost, 3-2, Wednesday night to the San Diego Padres, but while they rushed out of town, they couldn’t hide that smirk on their faces.

The Padres vowed to make a statement this series that they could play with the big boys, but after being routed the first two games by the Dodgers, all they accomplished was enhancing the Dodgers’ confidence.

The Dodgers (44-41) may be in a first-place tie with the Padres, but if truth be known, the Dodgers are convinced now more than ever that they are the team to beat in the National League West.

“I think we’re feeling good about ourselves,” Dodger second baseman Delino DeShields said, “because after all we’ve been through, we’re still sitting on top of the standings. We haven’t even played our best ball yet, and we’re still the team to beat.

“Our best ball is ahead of us, and it’s a good brand of baseball, ‘Billy Ball.’ It’s an aggressive style that will make us even better. I mean, just like that suicidesqueeze [Tuesday night]. That was so ‘un-Dodgeristic.’

“We’ve got teams thinking about us again.”

The Dodger offense, which had scored 45 runs and batted .398 the last four games, was shut down by Padre ace Joey Hamilton (10-4) and closer Trevor Hoffman, who recorded his 17th save. The Dodgers scored lone runs in the third and fourth innings, but never even touched second base again, producing only two hits.

Yet the moment the game ended, the Dodgers shrugged off the defeat, hurriedly dressed to beat the traffic, and promised their best will be unveiled the next four games against the Colorado Rockies.

“I’m sure [the Padres] wanted to show us what kind of team they had,” Bill Russell, Dodger interim manager, said. “It was good for us to come here and show them what kind of team we had. We respect them, but I think we got their respect too.

“We feel good coming out of here and I think the guys are really looking forward to these games against the Rockies. We get them back in Dodger Stadium where it’s real baseball. We’ll show them that we can bang with them. It’s good-hitting ballclubs, and the pitching will win out.”

Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda, who has been sidelined the last 10 days with a heart attack and ulcer, even is hoping to make an appearance. He said after the game that although he has been told he can’t go the All-Star game to be one of the National League coaches, he may be provided permission to come out to Dodger Stadium on Friday.

“We need to get that lead back,” Lasorda said.

The Dodgers, who had lost only one game since June 14 when limiting the opposition to three or fewer runs, found themselves tied, 2-2, in the seventh inning. But Dodger starter Ramon Martinez (6-3), flirting with danger the entire night, couldn’t get out of this jam.

Martinez, who walked six batters and hit another, opened the seventh by walking leadoff hitter Rickey Henderson for the third time in the game. Martinez induced a fly ball from Scott Livingstone, but then permitted Henderson to get a huge jump and steal second without a throw from catcher Mike Piazza.

Steve Finley grounded out to DeShields, moving Henderson to third with two outs. Now, with veteran third baseman Ken Caminiti at the plate and young outfielder Marc Newfield on deck, Martinez decided to walk Caminiti and bring up Newfield.

This was the third time Newfield came to the plate in a crucial situation. He hit into a double play with the bases loaded in the first inning, and drove in a run in the third inning simply by being hit with a pitch.

Now, in the biggest at-bat of the season, Newfield was being allowed to be the hero or the goat. He jumped on the first pitch and hit a bouncer up the middle.

“I thought I had a play on it,” Dodger shortstop Greg Gagne said, “but I looked up, and there was Delino. It was too quick to yell anything. I was going to go to first with it.”

Instead, DeShields aggressively ran past the second-base bag, jumped in the air, but was unable to muster enough power on his throw. Newfield crossed the bag, and Henderson raced across the plate with the winning run.

Not a bad start for a kid who has the burden of replacing 12-time All-Star Tony Gwynn in the lineup.

“I don’t feel like there’s any pressure on me at all,” Newfield said, “because I’m not going to do the type of things that Gwynn can do. I’m a totally different player. I know everybody expects me to do something, but that’s good, because I expect myself to do something.”

Sounds like the Dodgers.