Writhing, Two-Headed Serpent

A two-man rotation? Randy Johnson shakes his head. Not true, he says. No way do he and Curt Schilling represent “Spahn, Sain and pray for rain” reincarnated.

Of course, it doesn’t rain that much in Phoenix, and there is a retractable roof on BankOne Ballpark when it does, so somebody has to start all of those games that Johnson and Schilling don’t.

But as Manager Bob Brenly says of his Arizona Diamondback rotation: “We’ve had to mix and match as best we can, but we gave up on the idea of any stability in the three, four and five roles a long time ago.”

Adds pitching coach Bob Welch: “We’ve definitely had something of a floppy rotation. I mean, you run nine different starters out there and [20] pitchers in all and you’re still leading the division, it’s a tribute to those two guys.”

There are other tributes that involve the record book and comparisons to pitching twosomes of other eras, but at this point, with the finishing line looming and the Diamondbacks still leading the National League West by two games over the San Francisco Giants and three over the Dodgers, there is no tribute more important than that reflected by the standings.

Johnson and Schilling have carried a pitching staff wracked by injuries and ineffectiveness.

Six other starters are 26-35. Johnson and Schilling are 39-12.

They have been the workhorses and warhorses, and sometimes that creates a problem for Brenly, the rookie manager.

Burdened by an erratic bullpen, the failure to trade for relief help at the July deadline and the absence of injured closer Matt Mantei, the question for Brenly is when to hook Johnson and Schilling.

On Saturday, with Byung-Hyun Kim warming up in that treacherous bullpen, with Johnson leading, 3-1, having thrown only 108 pitches and needing only three outs to duplicate Schilling’s 20-6 record, there was no doubt in either Johnson or Brenly’s mind that the Big Unit should get the chance to finish it--and, perhaps, finish the Dodgers.

In the end, however, after 3 hours 50 minutes of a game that Brenly described as typifying pennant-race baseball, the Diamondbacks were unable to find relief again, an ongoing problem as they attempt to hold off the Giants and Dodgers.

Johnson failed to get those three outs in the ninth, even one, and the bullpen failed to hold a 5-3 lead in the 11th as the Dodgers exhumed their hopes, taking advantage of a rookie’s wildness to rally for three runs and a 6-5 victory.

As the joyous Dodgers suddenly went from five games out to three games out and the remnants of an announced crowd of 40,215 celebrated, the Diamondbacks slumped off, burdened by what has become a familiar defeat recently. Arizona has lost 10 of its last 15 games, seven in the opponent’s last at-bat.

“You walk people late in the game and you’re in trouble,” first baseman Mark Grace said. “Our last three losses, we’ve had to walk off having lost leads. We’re not playing poorly, we’re just having trouble getting the last outs. You lose like this and it hurts a little more, but we’ve bounced back, and we’ll have to do it again.”

Given Saturday’s body blow it will be a test, but then Schilling, who faces Terry Adams in today’s series finale, is 12-1 in starts that follow a Diamondback loss and covets that reputation of a stopper.

“There’s nothing better than excelling and achieving when your teammates are counting on you most,” the 35-year-old right-hander said. “I have a strong desire to be the guy in that situation.”

In what he describes as his best season, one in which it may take a Solomon to decide if he or Johnson should win the Cy Young Award, Schilling is also 3-0 against the Dodgers, which Johnson was also close to duplicating before Gary Sheffield walked to open the ninth and Paul Lo Duca slugged a dramatic home run on Johnson’s 117th pitch to tie it, bringing in Kim.

“One of the reasons we [restricted Johnson’s pitch counts] so many times early in the season is that he would be stronger to finish games down the stretch,” Brenly said. “We talked, and he agreed that he was strong enough to go back out. I don’t question that decision at all, but I’m disappointed he didn’t win his 20th more than anything. He was economical with his pitches, just tremendous, and he threw a good fastball to Lo Duca that he just went down and golfed.”

Said Johnson, who struck out eight, walked three and gave up only four hits before Lo Duca made it five: “I’m not going to second-guess myself or the manager. He had faith in me to go out there and start the ninth, and that’s what I did. Lo Duca is a good hitter. He got a [single] off me in his previous at-bat and I obviously would have preferred if he had gotten another, but I’m not as upset about that as I am walking the leadoff hitter.”

Maybe Johnson would have gone out there for the ninth even if Mantei was healthy or Kim had been more consistent recently, but when it got to the 11th with that 5-3 lead, with Kim, the submarining right-hander, having pitched two hitless and scoreless innings, Brenly was out of alleged closers and would-be closers.

Left-hander Brian Anderson, a troubled starter, gave up a leadoff single to Shawn Green. Rookie right-hander Mike Koplove was now asked to make his fifth big league appearance. He had struck out nine, walked three and given up only two hits in the 62/3 shutout innings of his previous four, but this time he couldn’t find the plate.

He walked Sheffield, hit Lo Duca and walked Eric Karros to force in a run, leave the bases loaded and bring on the nomadic Mike Morgan, who promptly yielded the game-winning single to Adrian Beltre as the Dodgers roared from the dugout to dance on their grave.

The celebration was still reverberating as Brenly reminded reporters that Koplove has been a closer in the minors and is used to late-inning situations “but maybe not of this magnitude. He’s been golden for us and I felt he was the best option at that point, but it’s probably my fault for putting him into that kind of situation.”

Koplove, 25, didn’t hide.

“I don’t think it was a matter of pressure,” he said. “I don’t think I was trying to do too much, although maybe subconsciously I felt that I had to be perfect rather than just throw strikes. I felt great physically, but I just couldn’t find the strike zone. It’s disappointing.”

Grace sat at his locker and thought about the twists and turns of this and other games.

“We were very happy, very dejected, very happy again and very dejected again,” he said. “I’m sure the same thing goes for [the Dodgers]. That’s why we love [baseball] and hate it.”

So now, Schilling needs to do his stopper number again, and that’s all that matters.

The fact that people are saying he and Johnson may be the most dominating twosome since Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale won 49 games for the Dodgers in 1965 or that he and Johnson need only 11 more strikeouts to break the record for teammates in a season that was set by Nolan Ryan and Bill Singer with the Angels in 1973 is all secondary.

In L.A. in September, the Diamondbacks can’t pray for rain, only that they don’t need relief.