Dodgers Win in Process of Elimination

Chan Ho Park, Terry Adams and James Baldwin all can file for free agency. Kevin Brown, Andy Ashby and Darren Dreifort all are coming off surgery.

That’s not to rule those pitchers out for next season. The Dodgers hope to sign two of the pending free agents, and they expect Brown and Ashby to be ready for spring training. But simply to point out that, of all the pitchers to start more than three games this season, they have two healthy and under contract for next season: Eric Gagne and Luke Prokopec.

That makes Terry Mulholland an intriguing candidate, if a longshot one, for the Dodger starting rotation next season. Mulholland, acquired in July to help the bullpen, started Tuesday and pitched six strong innings in the Dodgers’ 5-2 victory over the San Diego Padres.

Catcher Paul Lo Duca hit two home runs, including one off Padre closer Trevor Hoffman that broke a 2-2 tie in the ninth inning. Giovanni Carrara, who relieved Mulholland, recorded the victory.

Jeff Shaw earned his 41st save this season and the 127th of his Dodger career, tying Todd Worrell for the franchise record. The Dodger season record still belongs to Worrell, who saved 44 games in 1996.

The Dodgers were mathematically eliminated from the National League West race Tuesday, a point of utter irrelevance to the crowd of 22,442. The fans gathered for two reasons, neither relating to the Dodgers: They wanted to see Rickey Henderson make history, and they wanted to see Tony Gwynn bat during the final week of his career.

The fans did not go home happy. Henderson, one run shy of tying Ty Cobb’s record of 2,245 runs scored and three hits short of becoming the 25th player in major league history to collect 3,000 hits, went hitless and scoreless.

Henderson, who received a standing ovation before his first at-bat, flied out in the first inning and grounded out in the third.

In the sixth inning, Henderson walked, and the stadium came alive with anticipation. D’Angelo Jimenez then grounded into a double play, and the fans booed Jimenez. In the eighth inning, Henderson again walked, but Lo Duca threw him out trying to steal second.

Gwynn, limited to a pinch-hitting role the past two months because of knee injuries, was bothered by a sore right knee Tuesday and did not bat.

In his third start for the Dodgers, Mulholland gave up two runs and five hits in six innings, on a tidy 89 pitches. Since joining the Dodgers, his earned-run average is 7.90 in 14 innings as a reliever and 4.20 in 15 innings as a starter.

Mulholland, 38, a starter for most of his career, started 20 games for the Atlanta Braves last season and 24 for the Braves and Chicago Cubs in 1999. He is signed for $3 million next season, which is expensive for a middle reliever but a bargain for a starter.

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“You know there’s options available,” Manager Jim Tracy said. “There’s a number of different roles he can serve on the club. That’s our key interest in Terry--the versatility he has, and the ability to plug him in as a starter.”