Goodwin Costs Dodgers Extra

As if Tom Goodwin isn’t costing the Dodgers enough this season, the San Francisco reserve outfielder, who remains on the Dodger payroll to the tune of about $3.5 million, made his former team pay dearly again Sunday night.

The light-hitting Goodwin, starting for injured slugger Barry Bonds, went from understudy to leading man, smashing a two-run home run in the top of the ninth inning to lift the Giants to a 6-4 victory over the Dodgers, deflating a Dodger Stadium sellout crowd of 54,344 and laying waste to a stirring Dodger comeback in the sixth.

It marked the second time in three days that Goodwin, whose hefty contract was swallowed by the Dodgers after they released him coming out of spring training, has sent the Dodgers to a crushing defeat.

Goodwin lined an RBI single to left in the top of the 12th Friday night for a 3-2 Giant victory, and he smashed reliever Giovanni Carrara’s first pitch over the right-field wall in the ninth Sunday for his first home run of the season, a dagger that sealed the Dodgers’ 10th loss in 12 games and knocked them into third place in the National League West.

“The check’s probably going to be a little late this week,” Goodwin joked.

Ouch. That thud you just heard was Dodger Chairman Bob Daly’s fist pounding the breakfast table.

The Dodgers knew they were a better team without the underachieving Goodwin, they knew they had to eat his contract and clear room for Dave Roberts in the leadoff spot ... and Goodwin shoves it back down their throats.

“I’m not paying him,” Dodger first baseman Eric Karros said. “It doesn’t matter that Goody beat us. What matters is we lost. We lost two games that we easily could have won.”

Carrara was in his third inning of relief, his pitch count passing 40, when he walked J.T. Snow with one out after starting Snow with two strikes. Kirk Rueter pinch-ran, and Carrara then left a cut fastball over the middle of the plate, and Goodwin pounced on it.

“I wasn’t tired,” said Carrara, who threw 51 pitches. “I tried to pitch around J.T. because I didn’t think Goodwin would hurt me, and he did.”

Left-hander Jesse Orosco and right-hander Guillermo Mota were warm in the bullpen, but Manager Jim Tracy made no change because he liked a Carrara-Goodwin matchup over a potential Orosco-Shawon Dunston showdown. Dunston would have likely pinch-hit for Goodwin had Orosco been summoned.

“[Reliever Paul] Quantrill pitched three innings in the last two days, and with Mota, you’re pushing the envelope a little quickly with a younger guy,” Tracy said. “I thought Gio could retire J.T., and I liked a Carrara-Goodwin match-up. We had the right guy on the mound.”

So did the Giants in the bottom of the ninth, but the Dodgers mounted a serious threat against closer Robb Nen when Dave Hansen singled to right for his 107th pinch hit as a Dodger, snapping Manny Mota’s franchise record of 106, and Alex Cora doubled to left-center with two out, moving Hansen to third.

But Roberts, the hero of Saturday’s 4-2 Dodger victory with three runs batted in, struck out on a nasty split-fingered fastball, Nen earned his 26th save, and the Dodgers completed a 2-9 homestand, the most losses they’ve suffered on a homestand since going 4-9 from Aug. 14-26, 1992.

“We’re playing really bad right now,” second baseman Mark Grudzielanek said. “To be in the situation we’re in now, only 1 1/2 games [behind first-place Arizona], we’re very fortunate.”

The Dodgers trailed the Giants, 3-0, in the sixth inning when an offense that has sputtered since the All-Star break came to life, scoring four two-out runs to take a 4-3 lead.

Cora opened the inning with a pinch-hit single, Roberts failed to reach on a bunt attempt as Cora took second, and Paul Lo Duca flied to center for the second out.

Four Russ Ortiz pitches later, the score was tied, as Shawn Green lined a first-pitch RBI single to center, Karros hit a first-pitch single to right, Brian Jordan lobbed a first-pitch RBI single to right-center, and Grudzielanek lined a first-pitch RBI single to left-center to make it 3-3.

Jordan scored the go-ahead run when Adrian Beltre hit a one-hopper to the shortstop hole that Rich Aurilia knocked down but couldn’t make a play on.

The lead didn’t last long. Reggie Sanders, who homered off starter Hideo Nomo to lead off the sixth, sent a Carrara pitch into the right-field pavilion to start the eighth for his 14th homer of the season, pulling the Giants even, 4-4.

Bonds was taking practice swings in the Giants’ clubhouse during the eighth and ninth innings, preparing for a possible pinch-hitting appearance, but his services were not needed.

“I told Barry not to put his pants on--I told him I’d take care of it,” Goodwin said. “Getting back at the Dodgers ... there’s no vendetta. I didn’t leave on bad terms.”

He did Sunday.