A Grand Return and a Dodger Escape

Tim Wallach will grab the headlines.

And deservedly so.

A 38-year-old third baseman with a broken rib, cut by the last-place Angels less than a month ago, who is able to make it back onto the roster of his old club, the Dodgers, and smash a ninth-inning grand slam in his debut deserves all the credit he gets.

But the real credit for Sunday’s 10-5 Dodger victory over the Cincinnati Reds in front of 27,897 at Riverfront Stadium has to go to outfielder Chad Curtis, who drew a walk in his only plate appearance.

No matter.

Curtis’ run from first to second in the ninth enabled the Dodgers to score five runs in the inning and remain 2 1/2 games behind the NL West-leading San Diego Padres.

The Dodgers’ prospects looked less than promising entering the ninth. The club had blown leads of 4-0 and 5-1, giving up four runs in the eighth to allow the Reds to tie.

With one out in the ninth, Dodger outfielder Wayne Kirby battled reliever Hector Carrasco for 15 pitches, fouling off seven in a row before singling.

“It was the biggest at-bat of the whole inning,” Manager Bill Russell said. “It was a great at-bat.”

Mike Piazza, who earlier had hit his 28th home run, walked. After Eric Karros, who earlier had hit his 24th homer, flied to center, Curtis walked.

Curtis was inserted after Raul Mondesi suffered a freak injury. The Dodger outfielder, preparing to race to first on a grounder to third, dropped his bat awkwardly, the handle hitting a bone on his left ankle. Mondesi left the game and is listed as day-to-day.

With the bases loaded, Delino DeShields hit a slow roller past the pitcher’s mound. In raced shortstop Barry Larkin to scoop it up.

For one instant, Larkin had both the ball and the outcome of the game in his hands.

What to do?

Flip the ball to second baseman Bret Boone for the fielder’s choice on Curtis? Step on second himself? Or try to gun down the blazing DeShields at first?

Larkin did none of those things in time.

Curtis slid into second before Larkin could reach the bag, and that allowed Kirby to score what proved to be the winning run. Larkin then made a throw to first, but DeShields was easily across the bag.

“As soon as the ball was hit,” Cincinnati Manager Ray Knight said, “everybody in the infield should have been yelling, ‘One [for first base]! One! One!’ Nobody did.”

Not so, insisted Boone.

“I did yell, ‘First’ as soon as the ball was hit, but just once,” Boone said. “I figured he [Larkin] would go to first. I knew he had no chance at second.”

Said Larkin: “It’s too bad we had to lose a ballgame like that on indecision. At first, I thought I was going to throw to second, but Boone was not there. He was playing deep.

“If I came up throwing, maybe I could have got him at first. But when the ball came up to my left, that dictated what I was going to do. That made going to second the easy play.

“But you have to give Curtis credit. He was off the base and hustling.”

What made the play all the sweeter for Curtis was that he had come up too quickly in the eighth inning for a line drive by Hal Morris. The ball bounced on the artificial turf in front of Curtis and then sailed over his head for the triple that started Cincinnati’s four-run rally.

“In a baseball game,” Curtis said, “you can’t control very much. But you can control how much you hustle. That’s the way I play the game. I have been feeling like I have not been contributing a lot. This [his slide] was not a hit or a diving catch that wins a game. It’s a small thing, but I hope I can build on it.”

When Wallach followed with his sixth grand slam, it made relief pitcher Antonio Osuna (8-4) the winner and Carrasco (3-3) the loser.

Wallach, whose contract was purchased from the Dodgers’ San Bernardino farm team earlierSunday, admits he is not completely over the rib injury suffered while he was playing himself back into shape at San Bernardino.

But he was feeling no pain after Sunday’s blast.

“I wasn’t sure it was going out,” he said, “but it felt great.”

Wallach, who insists he’s retiring after the season, says he only came back for two reasons.

“Because it was with the Dodgers,” he explained, “and because they have a chance towin.”

With Wallach, those chances may have improved.