Valdes Savors His Final Pitch in 3-2 Victory

The way Ismael Valdes pumped and yelled and celebrated on the mound, one might think he had just thrown the pitch that had won his team a pennant.

Far from it.

The pitch that set off Valdes’ outburst was merely his last of the season. And perhaps his last as a Dodger.

And it was a good one, a 3-and-2 pitch to pinch-hitter Brian Banks with the bases loaded in the eighth inning of a game the Dodgers held on to win, 3-2, in front of a Friday night crowd of 36,059 at Dodger Stadium.

The victory guaranteed both the Dodgers (82-78) and Valdes (11-10) a winning record for 1998.

And all that was reason enough to celebrate in a season going nowhere for the Dodgers.

“That was a big out,” Valdes said, “A great out. I didn’t mean to be a hot dog, but I’d say it was the out of the game.

“I don’t know if I’ll be back next year, but wherever I am, I’ll do my best.”

For a while, it appeared as if Valdes’ best wasn’t going to be good enough. The Brewers had taken the early lead in the fifth inning after Dodger first baseman Eric Karros was charged with two errors on the same play. With Fernando Vina aboard via a single, Milwaukee first baseman Mark Loretta hit a grounder to first that Karros misplayed, the ball bounding away in front of him. Karros then tried to flip the ball back to the bag over his shoulder only to throw it away, allowing Vina to reach third. From there, he scored on an infield single by Jeff Cirillo.

Ironically, Loretta had been charged the previous night with two errors on a single play. So he was involved in two at-bats in two games that resulted in four errors.

Dodger shortstop Mark Grudzielanek was involved in some questionable fielding himself Friday. He was unable to make a play on one ground ball when third baseman Adrian Beltre crossed his path and Grudzielanek was charged with an error on another grounder.

But he more than made up for it by slugging the first pitch he saw from Milwaukee starter Brad Woodall (7-9) with Paul LoDuca aboard in the seventh inning into the left-field seats for his 10th homer.

Beltre smacked his seventh homer, off reliever Al Reyes in the eighth, also into the left-field seats, for what proved to be the deciding run.

Jeff Shaw picked up his 47th save in the ninth despite giving up an RBI single to Jeromy Burnitz.

While the Dodgers in general and Valdes in particular were all smiles in the Dodger clubhouse, the mood was a bit different on the Milwaukee side where Manager Phil Garner summed it all up with two words: “We stink.”