Things Balance Out for Dodgers

The Dodgers may have a new manager, but they are determined to make him look like the old manager.

“We’ve got to get him some gray in his hair,” said Eric Karros of Bill Russell, who replaced silver-haired Tommy Lasorda.

If the Dodgers keep playing the way they have been in Cincinnati, Russell may not have any hair left by the end of the season.

But he’s not complaining.

For the third consecutive day, the Dodger bullpen almost blew a lead, only to hang on and win, holding off the Cincinnati Reds, 6-5, Monday night before a Riverfront Stadium crowd of 21,677. The win moved the Dodgers (62-56) to within two games of the National League West-leading San Diego Padres.

It was a momentous night for Dodger right-hander Ramon Martinez (9-6), who got the 100th win of his eight-year career.

“It means a lot to me,” said Martinez, who has been thinking about this moment since spring training. “I knew [when the year started] that I needed nine wins.”

But the way things have been going lately, he should have known the outcome wouldn’t be decided until the end.

Saturday, the Dodgers were up 7-0 on the Reds and escaped with a 7-5 victory when Cincinnati was turned away with the bases loaded in the ninth. On Sunday, the Dodgers had leads of 4-0 and 5-1, but were tied 5-5 in the eighth before pulling away in the ninth to win, 10-5.

Monday, they enjoyed a 6-1 lead before the Reds made their inevitable charge, the game ending with the potential tying and winning runs aboard.

“It seems like it has been hard to get that last out,” said a relieved Russell. “But it doesn’t matter how many people it takes or how many pitches it takes as long as you win.”

Karros wasn’t about to listen to any talk about a porous bullpen.

“Everybody was talking the offense this and the offense that,” he said of the days not so long ago when the Dodgers couldn’t seem to get the timely hit. “Just as the bullpen picked us up, we’ve picked them up. They had been flawless, but to expect them to be that way all season is ridiculous.”

On a night when five of the Dodgers’ nine hits were for extra bases, Karros was a central figure in the offense, contributing a sacrifice fly and a bizarre double that had the crowd gasping, center fielder Thomas Howard shaking his head and baserunner Mike Piazza too stunned to move.

It came in the sixth inning with the Dodgers already ahead 4-1.

With Piazza at second base after an RBI double, Karros hit a ball that Howard chased to the right-center field wall in futility, the ball slipping out of his outstretched glove onto the top of the wall.

Did go over or not?

For a instant, it did neither. Instead the ball rolled along the top of the wall for about four feet, finally ending its high-wire act by toppling back onto the field to the amazement of Howard.

“I was really glad to be a part of it,” said Karros in a frustrated tone.

“I went back to the bag because I thought it might be caught,” Piazza said. “Then I thought, ‘What is that? I kind of froze. I didn’t know if they were going to call it a home run. It was the weirdest thing I’d ever seen. I didn’t know how to react.”

Karros wound up with a double and Piazza wound up at third.

Piazza, who had earlier hit his 29th home run, soon scored on a Tim Wallach single and Karros came home on a Greg Gagne single.

A day after hitting his dramatic grand slam home run in his return to the Dodgers, Wallach went two for four with two more RBIs.

With a 6-1 lead, the only question for the Dodgers seemed to be if Martinez could make his 100th win a complete game.

He could not.

Tiring in the eighth, Martinez gave way to Antonio Osuna and then Todd Worrell, Worrell getting his 30th save.

He earned it.

After Osuna gave up an RBI double to Eddie Taubensee, Worrell came on and surrendered an RBI single to Lenny Harris. Another run came across on an error and Barry Larkin’s infield single put runners at the corners.

Worrell finally ended the drama by getting Kevin Mitchell on a grounder to first.

The Dodgers had once again turned the Reds blue. And may yet turn their manager gray.

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