Piazza Provides the Relief

For the second game in a row, Dodger reliever Todd Worrell threw a pitch that landed in a bad location.

The outfield seats.

But unlike Sunday night, when he served up a pitch that resulted in a game-winning home run for the Chicago Cubs, Worrell survived yet another gopher ball Tuesday night at Olympic Stadium, thanks to catcher Mike Piazza, who answered Darrin Fletcher’s ninth-inning, game-tying homer with a 10th-inning game-winning home run to give the Dodgers a 5-4 victory over the Montreal Expos.

The win, which broke a two-game Dodger losing streak and a two-game Montreal winning streak, enabled the Dodgers to remain 1 1/2 games behind the NL West-leading San Francisco Giants, who also won Tuesday night.

For Piazza, the blast, his second of the game and 24th of the season, served as redemption for himself as well.

Piazza was coming off a miserable four days in Chicago during which he went one for 13 with only a single to show for his efforts.

A young Mike Piazza might have smashed in a drinking fountain or smashed a hole in the dugout wall over such a performance.

“Four or five years ago, I was an emotional wreck,” Piazza conceded. “But the biggest thing I’ve learned is maturity. When you are struggling, you are going to have your one-for-12 or two-for-20 streaks. That’s the cycle of the game.

“But Chicago is history. I’ve already put it behind me.”

He did that in the very first inning Tuesday night.

Facing Montreal starter Mike Johnson, a 21-year-old who was pitching in Class-A ball a year ago, Piazza, with two runners aboard, hit a towering drive that appeared as if it was going to brush the roof of Olympic Stadium before disappearing over the center-field wall.

The Dodgers scored again in the fifth inning, a run coming across when shortstop Mark Grudzielanek let a ground ball by Eric Karros go under his glove.

With Dodger starter Pedro Astacio cruising through the first five innings, having allowed only three hits, the Dodgers had reason to feel confident.

That reason soon evaporated.

Pecking away to the delight of the crowd of 16,769, Montreal got a run in the sixth and a pair in the seventh.

Rondell White singled home a run in the sixth and Doug Strange singled home Grudzielanek, who had tripled, in the seventh. When F.P. Santangelo tripled just over the glove of Raul Mondesi in right to send home Strange, Astacio was finished.

But not the Expos.

With Worrell, who already had six blown saves to go along with his 27 saves, on the mound, Fletcher tied the score with his 13th homer, a solid shot to right with one out in the ninth.

Piazza hit the game-winner off Ugueth Urbina to left-center field, saddling Urbina (3-8) with the loss.

Worrell (2-3) got the win and also some of his confidence back by retiring the Expos in order in the 10th. He struck out four of the six men he faced.

“Todd has been having some rough breaks recently,” Piazza said. “The whole team suffers.

“It was just poor location [Tuesday night]. He threw it down and in. To a left-handed hitter like Fletcher with power, that’s his joy spot.

“But Todd is still the closer on this team. So we have to find some way to overcome his mistakes.”

Dodger Manager Bill Russell gave Worrell a vote of confidence afterward. A qualified vote.

“I’m not saying I wouldn’t be concerned if it continues,” Russell said.

“One of the things that helped me tonight was pitching for a second inning,” Worrell said. “It helped make me realize that, instead of trying to throw every pitch 100 miles an hour, I have to throw within myself.”

Worrell remains confident his manager will continue to give him the opportunity to do so.

“I think,” Worrell said, “that he still believes in me.”