Dodger Victory Is Well Done

The Dodgers have had their share of beefs with umpires this season, but they received the officiating equivalent of filet mignon Thursday night, when a fluke play involving third base umpire Tim Timmons denied the Montreal Expos the tying run in the eighth inning.

But the real meat-and-potatoes play came in the bottom of the ninth, when blue-collar catcher Paul Lo Duca survived a bang-bang collision, fielding Shawn Green’s throw from right field and tagging Henry Mateo for the game’s final out to put a thrilling end to the Dodgers’ 1-0 victory before 10,985 in Olympic Stadium.

With two out, Mateo at second and Dodger closer Eric Gagne trying to protect a one-run lead, Jose Vidro, who was robbed of an eighth-inning double by Timmons, singled sharply to right.

Green, who struck out three times in four hitless at-bats, charged and made a strong one-hop throw to the plate. The ball and Mateo arrived at the same time, and Mateo lowered his shoulder into Lo Duca, but Lo Duca somehow caught the ball, swiped the tag and held onto the ball to end the game.

“The only thing in my mind was don’t let him get to the plate--if the throw was on line, he was going to have to run me over,” Lo Duca said. “I was so pumped up [after the play] I didn’t feel [the effects of the collision]. Then, I started seeing stars.”

The Dodgers were counting them.

There was starting pitcher Omar Daal, who gave up four hits in seven shutout innings to become the Dodgers’ fourth 10-game winner this season. In his last five starts, Daal is 3-0 with a 1.89 earned-run average.

There was reliever Jesse Orosco, who got Troy O’Leary to fly to center with the bases loaded to end the eighth.

There was Green, who showed his power is not limited to his bat by recording his fifth outfield assist of the season, and the 5-foot-8, 185-pound Lo Duca, whose no-guts, no-glory approach, honed under Angel Manager and former Dodger plate-blocker Mike Scioscia in the Dodger farm system, saved his team’s victory.

But as long as the Dodgers are handing out game balls, they shouldn’t forget Timmons.

Right-hander Paul Quantrill relieved Daal to start the eighth, and Vidro sliced a grounder inside the third-base bag, a shot that looked like a sure double before it hit Timmons about 20 feet beyond the base and stopped on the spot. Timmons was pointing toward center field, signifying the ball was fair, and jumping to avoid the ball at the same time, and he couldn’t get out of the way.

Baseball rules dictate an umpire is in play, so the ball was live. Dodger third baseman Adrian Beltre retrieved it, and a confused Vidro stopped after taking a wide turn around first. Beltre made a long throw across the diamond in time to nail Vidro at first for the first out.

“Vidro was just as confused as I was,” Dodger first baseman Tyler Houston said. “I thought it was foul, and then Beltre is standing there with the ball. [Vidro] put his head down--he thought it was a double all the way. He had to be confused, because you don’t see that play all the time.”

Orlando Cabrera then doubled to right, a hit that would easily have scored Vidro from second. Quantrill walked Vladimir Guerrero and struck out Andres Galarraga for the second out.

Quantrill then walked Fernando Tatis on a full-count pitch to load the bases, and Manager Jim Tracy summoned Orosco to face O’Leary, whose two-run, eighth-inning homer off Gagne beat the Dodgers on Tuesday night. O’Leary lifted a long fly ball to the gap in left-center, but center fielder Dave Roberts raced over to make the catch.

Then in the ninth, it was the Dodgers who bailed out Gagne instead of Gagne bailing out the Dodgers, as Green and Lo Duca combined on a defensive play that gave the excitable Gagne his 41st save.

“I was gonna tackle Lo Duca after that, but he’s too small,” Gagne said. “It was a great throw, right on the money, and Lo Duca was ready to get tackled. He could have gotten crushed, and he didn’t even flinch. That was amazing.”

Green said he simply “threw the ball as hard as I could. The [artificial] turf helped. You can make a hard, low throw, and the turf gives you extra length on the bounce. You know you’re going to have a chance.”

The Dodgers scored in the third inning when Mark Grudzielanek led off with a single to right and Alex Cora singled to center off Expo starter Javier Vazquez. Daal dropped a perfect sacrifice bunt toward third, advancing the runners, and Roberts, with the infield back, hit an RBI groundout to second.

The Dodgers were on the wrong end of two blown calls that were costly in losses to Arizona on July 11 and 13, and they were victimized by umpire Dan Iassogna’s ejection of Gagne in the ninth inning of a 6-4 loss to Cincinnati, a ruling that the vice president of umpiring said Iassogna erred on.

There were no complaints about the officiating Thursday night, though.

“That was a tremendous game, one you love to win and one that’s tough to lose, but we’ve had our fair share of those,” Tracy said. “We had virtually no room for error, and it went down to the last play.”