Dodgers Get the Last Laugh

Forgive Jeff Williams if he failed to grasp the feelings of nostalgia and hoopla surrounding the final baseball game at 3Com Park on Thursday afternoon.

Remember, not only is he a rookie, he’s from Australia.

So Williams didn’t get caught up in the frenetic farewell party to the erstwhile Candlestick Park. Not even with the largest crowd to see a regular-season game at 3Com chanting that familiar refrain of “Beat L.A.” on seemingly every other Williams pitch.

Pitching with the nerve of a 10-year veteran, Williams, in his third major league start, picked up his second victory as the Dodgers ruined the Giants’ festivities, 9-4, in front of 61,389.

“I came in and didn’t know what to expect,” Williams said. “I mean, I heard they were going to have a lot of people here, but I haven’t been fazed by a big crowd yet.”

Williams improved to 2-0 after going five solid innings and allowing four runs on six hits while striking out four and walking three.

“The Aussie showed his stuff today,” Dodger Manager Davey Johnson said. “It got interesting there for a while, but it was great big league experience for a young guy.”

Johnson was alluding to the fifth-inning jam Williams survived.

Before the fifth, Williams had given up only three hits and had a 5-2 lead.

But he gave up a run and the Giants had the bases loaded with one out as Barry Bonds stepped to the plate.

Bonds, playing his final game of the year--he is scheduled to undergo arthroscopic surgery on his knee today--had promised before batting practice that he would swing for the fence.

With the crowd screaming, Bonds worked Williams to a full count. Then Williams sneaked a curve past the startled Bonds, who went down looking.

Williams then walked Jeff Kent, forcing in a run, but he got Armando Rios to fly out to end the inning.

The Dodgers padded their lead in the sixth.

With one out, Raul Mondesi hit a hanging curve by reliever Mark Gardner over the left-field wall for a three-run homer, giving the Dodgers an 8-4 lead and Mondesi his 33rd home run and 97th run batted in of the year. The homer was also the 1,000th hit of Mondesi’s career.

The Dodgers added another run in the eighth.

Mondesi, who had led the inning off with a single, stole second--his 35th steal--then scored on Adrian Beltre’s single.

Dodger relievers Onan Masaoka, Mike Maddux and Jeff Shaw held the Giants to two hits over the final four innings.

And though the hoopla was lost on Williams, that was not the case for the rest of the Dodgers.

Johnson, no fan of 3Com, what with its legendary unpredictable weather and less-than-sunny disposition, said he saw players scooping up infield dirt as keepsakes before the game.

“There’s nothing I want here,” he said. “I’ll have my memories, but that’s good enough. I don’t need to have a bottle with dirt in it or a piece of the seat. I’ve left my share of blood in this ballpark.”