Butler Five-Hits Mets

Dodger center fielder Brett Butler, savoring one of the best games of his career, stood in the outfield Wednesday afternoon, looked up and closed his eyes.

“I just said, ‘Thank you for allowing me to play one more year,’ ” Butler said. “ ‘Thank you for making this all possible.’ ”

Butler, five weeks shy of the one-year anniversary of his cancer surgery, showed he still is one of the game’s finest leadoff hitters, leading the Dodgers’ 5-2 victory over the New York Mets in front of 13,759 at Shea Stadium.

While starter Pedro Astacio and three relievers combined for a one-hitter--the first one-hitter against the Mets in three years--Butler stole the stage with his performance.

Butler, who didn’t know three months ago whether he could even play baseball, went five for five, tying his career high for hits. He singled in all three innings in which the Dodgers scored.

Butler is batting .311 and has the best on-base percentage (.446) of any leadoff hitter in the National League.

“I didn’t have a fear to fail,” Butler said, “but I wasn’t sure I could do this. The questions in my mind were, ‘Can you do this? Can you continue to do this?’

“I don’t think I’ll ever think I’m totally back. I’ll always have this reminder, this numbness.”

Butler pointed to the scar running down the left side of his neck, smiled and said: “I wanted to help and contribute to this club. You know, I think I’ve done that.”

Butler has reached base at least twice in 10 games this year. He is as responsible as anyone for the Dodgers’ 9-4 record, keeping them within one game of the division-leading Colorado Rockies.

“That’s what we need him to do,” said first baseman Eric Karros, who hit the longest home run of his career in the sixth inning, a 470-foot blast that hit the video board in left-center. “You don’t sit around anymore and say, ‘Oh, boy, is it amazing? Can you believe what he can do?’

“He’s out there doing the job.”

Butler was the catalyst of the Dodgers’ offense, but Astacio nearly became an entry in Dodger folklore.

Astacio, who had pitched in the bullpen since his April 4 start, had a no-hitter through seven innings. He gave up a run in the first inning on a walk, balk, groundout and sacrifice fly, but was so dominant he permitted only two balls to leave the infield after the third inning. Except for Bernard Gilkey’s sacrifice fly in the first and Alex Ochoa’s line drive to third baseman Todd Zeile in the fifth, he hadn’t even allowed a hard-hit ball.

“I started thinking about it,” Astacio said. “You think about how in no-hitters there’s always a great play or two, and I thought maybe this is my day.

“Even if I didn’t want to think about it, the Mets’ fans kept reminding me. They kept saying, ‘Hey, Pedro, you got a no-hitter. Hey, Pedro, you think you’re going to throw a no-hitter today.’ They kept trying to mess up my concentration.”

Astacio never wavered. He came within six outs of becoming the third pitcher in Shea Stadium history to throw a no-hitter.

Second baseman Carlos Baerga was the first batter up in the eighth. He was batting .167 with one extra-base hit, but still, Astacio wanted to be careful.

With a 1-and-0 count, Astacio threw a changeup down the middle, and Baerga hit a shot just past Karros inside the right-field line for a double.

“I was just hoping it would be foul,” Karros said. “But it went by me before I had a chance. I guess it’s better than giving up a bloop hit.”

Said Baerga: “I knew what the situation was, everybody knew about the no-hitter,” Baerga said. “You get excited, but my hits don’t mean nothing. They still won, didn’t they?”

Manager Bill Russell immediately took Astacio out of the game and turned it over to the bullpen. Darren Dreifort made it interesting by walking the first two batters, loading the bases with no outs. But Mark Guthrie got out of the jam with only one run scoring, and Todd Worrell pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for his fourth save.

“I’m a little more tired today than usual,” said Butler, 39. “We had a good trip, but I’m looking forward to going home. Believe me, when you get to be my age, you appreciate these days.”