Dodgers Still Exposed

The Dodger Stadium employee stopped by Manager Bill Russell’s office late Thursday afternoon, dropped off a case of beer, and wished he could stick around for the celebration.

The Dodger players were in seclusion in their lounge before the game. They were trying to decide how to divide their playoff shares.

The Dodgers merely had to wait for the Montreal Expos to lose Thursday, or if absolutely necessary, simply defeat the San Francisco Giants to officially clinch their playoff spot.

But a not-so-funny thing happened.

The Expos not only won, but the Dodgers lost, 6-1, to the Giants and Mark Gardner in front of a subdued crowd of 38,393 at Dodger Stadium.

The Dodgers’ magic number for clinching a playoff berth remains at one.

“I don’t want nobody to clinch against me,” Giant Manager Dusty Baker said, “not even the Lakers, and I like the Lakers.”

Is Baker still smarting over the Dodgers’ season-finale victory over the Giants in 1993 that eliminated them from the playoff race?

“I got the rest of my life to pay them back for ‘93,” Baker said. “And I got a long memory.”

The Dodgers still are in a commanding position to not only reach the playoffs, but win the National League West title. They have a two-game lead over the San Diego Padres in the West and a three-game lead over the Expos in the wild-card race with only three remaining games.

The Dodgers need to win only one of their final three games against the Padres in their three-game series beginning tonight at Dodger Stadium to clinch the NL West. And even if they somehow were swept in a three-game series for the first time since the Florida Marlins accomplished the feat in April, all it takes is a loss by the Expos to clinch a wild-card berth.

“Obviously, I like our situation more than theirs,” Russell said. “We just have to win one of those games. They have to win three. Everything is in our favor.

“You’ll see a lot different team [tonight], believe me.”

Said Giant outfielder Barry Bonds: “Let them battle it out by themselves. That’s the way it should be.”

The fact that the Dodgers knew they couldn’t clinch the division title, perhaps more than anything, might have explained the Dodgers’ play.

“It was kind of a weird feeling,” said Todd Hollandsworth, who went hitless in four at-bats and is in a 0-for-11 slide. “We still wanted to win, obviously, but you knew that no matter what happened, you still had to beat San Diego once.”

The Dodgers (90-69) played like a team with nothing at stake. If you didn’t know better, you could have sworn the teams switched uniforms in the clubhouse and played accordingly.

It was the Dodgers who were booting balls, dropping balls, missing the cutoff men, floundering on the mound, and struggling at the plate.

It was never close.

The Giants took a 3-0 lead in the third inning with four consecutive singles off Dodger starter Tom Candiotti (9-11). They had a 4-0 lead in the fourth. And after Glenallen Hill’s homer, it was 5-0 in the fifth.

Unlike Wednesday, the Dodgers never came back. Gardner (12-7) pitched a seven-hit complete game, limiting the top four Dodger batters in the lineup to one single in 16 at-bats.

“They look a little tired,” Gardner said. “I think a few of them are swinging tired bats. I think [Mike] Piazza needs a little bit of a rest. They’re coming into a grind.

“They’ll be able to rest the rest of the year if they don’t pick it up a little bit, but I think they’ll be OK once they get the adrenaline going.”

Meanwhile, Candiotti may have made his last start in a Dodger uniform. Candiotti, who is not scheduled to start a playoff game, yielded eight hits and five runs in five innings. He still has one year left at $3 million on his contract, but Dodger sources say they will try to trade him this winter to make room for Chan Ho Park in the starting rotation.

“Sure, I thought about it,” Candiotti said. “The last four or five days leading up to this, I thought this could be the last time I pitch in Dodger Stadium. If it happens, it happens. There’s nothing I can do about it.

“It’s probably been one of my most disappointing seasons, playing on a club this good and not pitch like I have the last 10 or 12 years That’s what hurts.

“Maybe if I get lucky I’ll get a strikeout in the World Series.”

The loss, in fact, did little to deter the Dodgers’ confidence. They have taken great delight by recent published comments that the Atlanta Braves are apprehensive about playing them in the playoffs.

“‘I think they should be scared of us,” Russell said, “because of our pitching staff, and now our hitting. We don’t fear anybody. You can’t take Atlanta lightly, we know that, but we like our team.

“That’s not cockiness or arrogance. That’s just confidence. And this team is going on a lot of confidence.”

Yet, before they worry about Atlanta or anyone else, they still must win one more game.

“We haven’t done anything yet,” first baseman Eric Karros said. “If we had won tonight, we could have assured ourselves of a playoff spot, but we didn’t.

“Obviously, I like our situation more than theirs, but it’s not going to be cakewalk, at all.

“I guarantee you that.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

* IF THE DODGERS WIN WEST

AND PADRES ARE WILD CARD:

Dodgers open five-game divisional playoff series Tuesday at St. Louis.

* IF DODGERS WIN WEST AND EXPOS ARE WILD CARD:

Dodgers open divisional series Tuesday at Montreal.

* IF THE PADRES WIN WEST AND DODGERS ARE WILD CARD:

Dodgers open Wednesday at home vs. Atlanta.

POSTSEASON DATES

DIVISION PLAYOFFS

* National League

Tuesday--Oct. 7

* American League

Tuesday--Oct. 6

* TV: NBC, Fox, ESPN

LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIPS

* American League: Oct. 8-16

* National League: Oct. 9-17

* TV: NBC, Fox

WORLD SERIES

Saturday, Oct. 19

* NL champion

at AL champion, 5 p.m.

Sunday, Oct. 20

* at AL, 4:30 p.m.

Tuesday, Oct. 22

* at NL, 5:15 p.m.

Wednesday, Oct. 23

* at NL, 5:15 p.m.

Thursday, Oct. 24

* at NL, 5:15 p.m.*

Saturday, Oct. 26

* at AL, 5 p.m.*

Sunday, Oct. 27

* at AL, 4:30 p.m.*

* if necessary

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

(Southland Edition) Dodger Playoff Possibilities* If the Dodgers win West and Padres are wild card:

Dodgers open Tuesday at St. Louis

* If Dodgers win West and Expos are wild card:

Dodgers open Tuesday at Montreal

* If the Padres win West and Dodgers are wild card:

Dodgers open Wed. at home vs. Atlanta

* Note: If the Dodgers and Padres tie for the division and both are assured a playoff spot, the Padres will win the division based on head-to-head meetings this season. If the Dodgers, Padres and Expos are tied after Sunday, the Dodgers and Padres will play a one-game playoff to determine the division winner. The loser of that game will be eliminated from the playoffs since they will fall one-half game behind the Expos, who will then become the wild-card team.

POSTSEASON DATES

* DIVISION PLAYOFFS

Tuesday-Oct. 7

* LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIPS

American League: Oct. 8-16

National League: Oct. 9-17

* WORLD SERIES

Oct. 19-27

*

* OH, HENRY!

Grand slam by Rodriguez helps Expos beat Phillies and keeps Montreal in the hunt for wild-card berth. C3