Dodgers Streak by Giants for Fourth Win in a Row

They had been close before, often winning three successive games during their stressful season.

But then something would happen to the Dodgers, derailing their efforts to win at least four in a row. Until Saturday.

They finally earned that elusive fourth consecutive victory by defeating the San Francisco Giants, 6-3, for the second time in as many days on a hazy afternoon at Dodger Stadium.

“Yeah, I was definitely thinking about it,” Manager Glenn Hoffman said. “It’s something that we’ve been talking about, something that we knew was out there, and we just couldn’t get it done.

“We were right there so many times, and it was tough when we kept coming up short. Someone mentioned last night [Friday] that we had done it, and I knew we didn’t. I knew that today was our chance to do it, and we did. But we’ll save the champagne for [consecutive victory] No. 5 if we get it.”

The Dodgers had won three in a row seven times. They finally separated themselves from the Detroit Tigers, the only remaining major league team that hasn’t broken through the four-victory barrier in 1998.

“The strange thing is that it has been so difficult,” center fielder Trenidad Hubbard said. “But for a team that couldn’t win four in a row until now, our record [72-70] isn’t as bad as you would think it would be. From Little League on, you expect to win that many in a row without a problem.

“I mean, we were with the Detroit Tigers--and even they expect to win five or six in a row. I’ve never seen a professional team . . . the whole thing has just been unbelievable.”

A crowd of 35,802 watched as starter Chan Ho Park (12-8) pitched his first complete game of the season, and his teammates supported him with an 11-hit attack. The Dodgers staked Park to a 6-0 lead against former Dodger icon Orel Hershiser (9-10), who lasted only two-plus innings.

“It was just a tough day,” said Hershiser, who dropped to 2-1 against the Dodgers after giving up eight hits and six runs. “I made some bad pitches, they hit some holes, and then I was out of there.”

The suddenly struggling Giants (76-66) dropped their second game in the three-game series. San Francisco trails the front-running Chicago Cubs by four games in the National League wild-card race. They’re also three games behind the second-place New York Mets, and the Dodgers are hurting their chances.

“We don’t feel sorry for the Giants, but we’re not trying to be ‘spoilers,’ ” Hubbard said. “We’re just trying to win, and a byproduct of winning is that we’re hurting the Giants.”

The Dodgers played 142 games before attaining their modest streak, which wasn’t lost in the moment.

“It’s just amazing,” said outfielder Jim Eisenreich, who played well while making a rare start in left. “You would think that with the guys we have on this team, with the pitching staff that we have, we could put a string together, but we haven’t been able to do that before now.

“And still, it’s not a full-fledged four in a row. I mean, we did win four in a row, but it’s September, and we’re so far out. When we needed to win, which was during most of the summer, we couldn’t do it.”

The Dodgers won Saturday behind another strong effort by Park. The right-hander gave up four hits--including two homers--and three runs.

Park struck out six and walked three, winning for the third time in four starts. He made a lot of pitches--136, 76 for strikes--in completing the third game of his three-year career.

“[Pitching coach Charlie Hough] came to me after the eighth inning and asked me if I wanted to pitch the ninth,” Park said. “He told me I had thrown 120 [pitches to that point], and that was a lot.

“But I told him, ‘Of course, I really wanted to’ finish the game. I completed two games last year, and that gave me a lot of confidence. I wanted this game, and we won [four in a row].”

It certainly took them long enough.