Dodgers Get Giant Break : Baseball: Prince has key hit in 15th as L.A. beats St. Louis, 7-6, to move one game ahead of San Francisco, which loses when it can't hold a ninth-inning lead. Worrell gets 10th blown save.

By STEVE SPRINGER

Sept. 16, 1997 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

ST. LOUIS —

It was the Dodger catcher who proved to be the hero of Monday night’s nail-biting, teeth-clenching marathon, a 4-hour 42-minute, 15-inning, 7-6 Dodger victory that pushed them back into sole possession of first place in the National League West, more than two hours after a ninth-inning Atlanta Brave rally had beaten the San Francisco Giants.

It was the catcher who made a clutch grab of a foul ball by Mark McGwire, nearly tumbling head first down the steps of the St. Louis dugout before Cardinal Manager Tony La Russa caught him.

It was the catcher who finally got a hit after the Dodgers had gone 8 2/3 innings without one in the middle of Monday night’s game.

And finally, it was the catcher whose two-run single in the 15th off Brady Raggio, the sixth Cardinal pitcher, provided the margin of victory.

Mike Piazza?

Nope, he took the night off after Manager Bill Russell had given Piazza a choice of either Monday or Tuesday for his last game off of the regular season.

The hero of Monday night’s game was backup catcher Tom Prince, who had three hits and caught all 15 innings.

And it was Prince who prevented reliever Todd Worrell from being the goat once again.

Despite the victory, Worrell was credited with his tenth blown save. His earned-run average, already the highest on the team, surged to 5.56 after he failed to protect a two-run Dodger lead in the ninth.

Mike Harkey (1-0) was given credit for the victory and Darren Dreifort picked up his fourth save, Harkey and Dreifort being the eighth and ninth Dodger pitchers and 25th and 26th players they used in the game.

The Cardinals used 24 players.

The way Dodger starter Ismael Valdes began, it looked like a short night for the Dodgers.

The first batter he faced, Delino DeShields, singled and the next man up, Willie McGee, doubled DeShields home and, like that, the Dodgers were behind.

But Valdes settled down and, in the fifth, he appeared in command after the Dodgers got to St. Louis starter Rigo Beltran for four runs.

Prince opened with a double. Otis Nixon doubled Prince in and Eric Karros, Todd Zeile and Darren Lewis each smacked RBI singles.

Karros has been mired in a slump in which he had gone only one-for-21 before getting that single.

But after Lewis’ hit, the Dodgers went into a team-wide slump that continued until Prince’s 14th-inning single.

The Cardinals got a run in the bottom of the fifth when Royce Clayton got a double on a ball that skipped past Zeile, a play on which the third baseman could easily have been charged with an error. DeShields singled home Clayton to make it 4-2.

And that’s the way it stayed until the ninth when Russell called on his closer.

Worrell began the way he often does when he’s struggling: by serving up a gopher ball.

Gary Gaetti picked on Worrell’s second pitch and deposited it just over the left-field fence in the Cardinal bullpen, his 17th home run of the season.

It was the 12th homer Worrell has given up in 56 2/3 innings.

After Worrell had suffered a loss and a blown save on back-to-back days at the start of the month, Russell had said that his closer would be on a short leash.

But Monday night, he gave the Dodger reliever plenty of rope.

Russell kept Worrell in after pinch-hitter Tom Lampkin blooped a single to center and after Clayton singled into right-center to put two runners aboard.

It was only after pinch-hitter Danny Sheaffer had laid down a sacrifice bunt, after Worrell had raced over to pick it up, after he looked at third, hoping to get the runner, only to fail to pick up the ball altogether, with the bases loaded and nobody out, that Russell finally pulled Worrell.

In came Mark Guthrie to get DeShields on a force play at second with the tying run crossing the plate.

When Raggio, the sixth Cardinal pitcher, couldn’t find the plate in the 15th inning, walking three batters including pinch-hitter Wayne Kirby with the go-ahead run, it appeared that Prince’s line-drive single to left to send home two more runners was merely a nice cushion.

Ray Lankford hit his 29th home run in the bottom of the 15th with a man aboard off Harkey, but after Dreifort came on to get the final two outs, Prince became king for a day.

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THE WEST / Stretch Drive

STANDINGS

*--*

TEAM W L GB DODGERS 83 67 -- GIANTS 82 68 1

*--*

MONDAY

* Dodgers: 7

* St. Louis: 6 (15)

* Atlanta: 5

* Giants: 4

GAMES REMAINING