Oh, What a Relief for Dodgers

Mike Piazza’s hot bat carried the Dodgers to victory for the second game in a row, but a line drive off the bat of Philadelphia Phillie third baseman Scott Rolen kept it from being a completely enjoyable evening for the Dodgers and the 43,603 fans at Dodger Stadium on Saturday.

Rolen’s line drive in the fourth inning struck Dodger pitcher Hideo Nomo on the right arm. Nomo was forced to leave the game after giving up only Rolen’s hit, but Darren Dreifort stepped into the breach with 4 1/3 strong innings, the longest stint of his career, and was credited with the victory as the Dodgers overpowered the Phillies, 4-1.

Piazza hit two home runs against Curt Schilling, the second a thunderous opposite-field drive to right off an eye-high fastball, to help the Dodgers move within two games of the San Francisco Giants in the NL West, their smallest deficit since they were two games out on May 26. They were eight games behind on June 30.

The best news, though, was Nomo’s injury does not appear to be serious. Caution ruled the moment, as he wasn’t even allowed to make a practice toss before he was pulled, but Nomo said he expects to be able to make his next start.

“I have no pain, so I think I have no problem,” said Nomo, who will be reevaluated today. “There was a certain pain [initially], but that pain is obviously different from the kind of fracture pain, so I wasn’t really worried.”

Manager Bill Russell was worried enough for both of them. “I saw the ball seams were on his arm, so you know he got hit pretty good,” Russell said. “At least he didn’t get hit on the elbow proper. He’ll probably be pretty sore [today], but I don’t think he will miss a start.”

Dreifort (4-1) was in the bullpen restroom when Nomo got hit. “I heard it on the radio and they called down to the pen,” said Dreifort, whose previous longest stint this season was three innings, April 6. “You’re in the pen every night and you’ve got to get ready in two minutes, so having as much time [to warm up] as you want is a luxury.

“I felt strong the whole time and I started to get into a bit of a groove after the second inning.”

Piazza is in a home run groove of monstrous proportions. His first-inning homer to left-center was a mere warmup for his two-run blast in the sixth off Schilling (11-10). It was measured at 424 feet, and it appeared to be longer.

“When a right-hander hits the ball that far, you know he’s got some power,” Russell said. “Left-handers don’t hit ‘em that far. It was awesome.”

Piazza, who raised his batting average to .362, said he may have hit other shots that long off fastballs that high, “only in batting practice once in a while, but you know what’s coming. I can’t really explain it. I was fortunate. I tensed up on my first swing and then the only thing I remember about that swing is that I felt relaxed.”

It was his first multi-homer game this season and the 14th of his career. His career best is three, June 29, 1996, at Colorado.

Until Nomo left the game, the evening was a splendid matchup between two of the league’s best strikeout artists. Schilling added 10 strikeouts to extend his his league-leading total to 201 and became the first Phillie to record 200 strikeouts in a season since Steve Carlton led the NL in 1983 with 275 strikeouts. He’s also the first Phillie right-hander to reach 200 strikeouts since Jim Bunning, who had a league-leading 253 in 1967.

Nomo struck out two and walked one in 3 2/3 innings before Rolen’s line drive.

Piazza gave the Dodgers the lead in the first inning, but the Phillies pulled even in the sixth inning on an unearned run after Dreifort’s error and Rolen’s sacrifice fly.

The tie didn’t last long. Brett Butler reached on a hit to the left side of the infield and trotted home ahead of Piazza. Karros followed with a double to right but was thrown out trying to stretch it to a triple after right fielder Derrick May misplayed the ball.

Todd Zeile padded the lead to 4-1 when he led off the bottom of the seventh by slamming a 3-and-2 pitch into the left-field seats, his 21st home run.

“I’m glad that we picked up the win, even though I got an unfortunate accident,” Nomo said.