Free Pass Is Cubs’ Ticket to 5-4 Victory

Jon Lieber was cruising.

After a rocky third inning, the Chicago Cub starter retired 14 straight batters and outpitched Dodger starter Kevin Brown.

But Dave Hansen made it all for naught as the Dodger pinch hitter clubbed a game-tying solo home run in the eighth inning that hit the right-field foul pole, getting Brown off the hook.

Turns out it only delayed the inevitable as the Cubs pulled out a 5-4 victory in 10 innings in the final of the three-game series in front of 39,753 at Dodger Stadium Wednesday night.

Dodger reliever Antonio Osuna (2-5) walked Jeff Reed with the bases loaded in the 10th, forcing home Mark Grace, who had also walked. And the Dodgers couldn’t capitalize on a pair of lead-off singles in the bottom of the inning off Chicago closer Rick Aguilera, making a winner out of reliever Tim Worrell (2-3). Aguilera got his 27th save, getting Gary Sheffield to foul out with the bases loaded.

With the loss, the Dodgers (59-54) fell 5 1/2 games behind the first-place San Francisco Giants in the National League West Division.

“We battled back and Hansen got the big hit and we were in a position to win,” Dodger Manager Davey Johnson said. “If we put the ball in play, the run scores. That’s what makes the game so maddening.”

Hansen’s 391-foot homer was his sixth of the year and came on a full count with one out. It was also his fifth pinch-hit home run of the season and 10th career pinch-hit homer as a Dodger, a franchise record.

“I’m not trying to hit home runs,” Hansen said. “Those are surprises. It’s a crazy game.”

While the Dodgers were struggling for answers after losing consecutive three-game home series to the nondescript Milwaukee Brewers and Chicago, Cub Manager Don Baylor was calling it “one of the most inspiring wins” of the year.

“Pitching became the final outcome,” he said. “It’s always a game of inches. [Hansen’s home run] ball hits the outside of the foul pole and your heart sinks. But these guys just don’t quit.”

Lieber, who was riding a career-best five-game winning streak, entered the game having pitched the most innings in the league with 177 2/3. He lasted eight more against the Dodgers, giving up four runs on five hits while striking out eight in 116 pitches, 74 strikes.

Brown, meanwhile, entered the game with the second-lowest ERA in the National League, 2.34, and had held opponents to the lowest batting average, .200. But he got caught early and often by the Cubs, giving up four runs on nine hits in six innings. He struck out five and walked two in his 102 pitches, 65 of which were strikes.

Johnson said Brown experienced tightness in his back.

The Cubs got on the board in the first.

With one out and Ricky Gutierrez on first, courtesy of a Brown walk, Sammy Sosa hit a line drive through the infield that skidded to the wall in left-center, scoring Gutierrez.

Todd Hundley tied it up with a 449-foot blast down the right-field line in the second inning.

Batting from the left side of the plate, the switch-hitting Hundley’s hit landed in the loge level in right field for his 18th home run of the season.

Hundley became the ninth player to reach the loge, the second this season with the Cincinnati Reds’ Eddie Taubensee, who pulled it off in the Reds’ 5-4 win on April 15.

But a pair of Hundley throwing errors was part of a three-run third for the Cubs.

A double steal by Jeff Huson, from third to home, and Eric Young, his 38th stolen base of the season, preceded Hundley’s first error.

Hundley’s throw to second to get Young was offline, causing shortstop Alex Cora to get spiked on the left forearm by Young, who advanced to third when the ball squirted out to shallow left field.

Young scored on a Gutierrez single.

Hundley’s second throwing error of the inning came when Gutierrez stole second, the throw skirting out to center and allowing Gutierrez to reach third.

Mark Grace’s two-out double brought Gutierrez home and gave the Cubs a 4-1 lead.

The Dodgers cut the deficit to one in the third when Cora, who had tripled, scored on Mark Grudzielanek’s single, and Devon White, who was hit by a pitch, came home on a Shawn Green base hit.

The Dodgers had a chance to win it in the ninth after Green led off with a double down the first-base line. It appeared as though Green could have gone for a triple but a fan reached over and grabbed the ball.