Dodgers Widen the Gap

When calls aren’t going your way, hits aren’t dropping and mediocre defensive players are robbing you with spectacular catches, players will often rationalize such bad luck by saying, “These things usually even out.”

Consider the Dodgers even.

A pair of San Francisco errors, a mental gaffe by an outfielder and a questionable call at first base contributed to the Dodgers’ first three runs Saturday, and Omar Daal breezed through an injury-ravaged Giant lineup during a 5-1 Dodger victory before 41,314 in Pac Bell Park.

Facing a lineup that included only three regulars--Rich Aurilia, Jeff Kent and David Bell--and was missing slugger Barry Bonds and No. 5 hitter Reggie Sanders, Daal (8-5) gave up one run and two hits in six innings to lead the Dodgers to their first back-to-back wins since July 5-6 against St. Louis.

Third baseman Adrian Beltre followed Friday night’s four-hit, four-RBI performance with three hits, including a two-out, RBI triple to right-center field in the eighth inning, and catcher Paul Lo Duca had three hits, two runs and a run batted in as the Dodgers remained four games behind first-place Arizona in the National League West and moved two games ahead of the Giants in the wild-card race.

“We had some breaks go our way,” Lo Duca said. “And we made them pay.”

The Dodgers were the masters of misfortune since the All-Star break, with two blown calls contributing to losses against the Diamondbacks on July 11 and 13, and San Diego left fielder Ron Gant robbing Dave Roberts of a two-run triple and maybe more with an amazing catch in a Padre victory Monday night.

But their luck changed in San Francisco, beginning with a dizzying array of injuries that sidelined the Giants’ starting outfield, along with hard-hitting catcher Benito Santiago, for the first two games of the series. In addition, first baseman J.T. Snow, suffering from flulike symptoms, did not start either game.

Those five players have accounted for 65 of the Giants’ 127 home runs and 234 of their 476 RBIs.

Daal, who got ahead of hitters with his fastball and put them away with his curve and changeup, took advantage, pitching aggressively to everyone except Aurilia and Kent and holding the Giants hitless until Yorvit Torrealba’s leadoff double in the sixth.

“It’s a lot different without Bonds and Sanders in the lineup,” Daal said. “I know everybody can hurt you, but I was just trying to be careful with Aurilia and Kent. I didn’t want anyone on base when they were up. I didn’t want to get beat by them.”

The Giants beat themselves up pretty good. After Shawn Green and Lo Duca opened the fourth with singles, Tyler Houston hit a routine fly ball to center. Green tagged from second, and Giant center fielder Tom Goodwin, who has one of baseball’s worst throwing arms, threw wide of third.

Not only was it a bad throw, it was to the wrong base. Goodwin’s decision allowed Lo Duca to tag and go to second, and that proved costly. Green scored when third baseman Pedro Feliz bobbled Marquis Grissom’s slow chopper for an error, as Lo Duca took third.

Cesar Izturis followed with a shot that caromed off pitcher Livan Hernandez’s foot to Feliz, who threw to first. Umpire John Hirschbeck ruled Izturis safe on a very close play, as Lo Duca scored for a 2-0 lead.

Torrealba doubled and scored on Goodwin’s double-play grounder in the sixth to pull San Francisco within 2-1, but Hernandez walked Daal and Roberts with two out in the seventh.

Bell made a diving stop of Mark Grudzielanek’s grounder to the second-base hole, but his throw pulled Kent off the bag at first for an error. When Kent fell to the ground lunging for the ball, Daal raced home for a 3-1 lead.

Daal suffered a nasty cut on his right shin while sliding into Torrealba. The left-hander had to leave the game, but the injury was not considered serious.

Beltre’s RBI triple in the eighth made it 4-1, and Lo Duca tacked on an insurance run with a two-out RBI single in the ninth, as the Giants lost their third in a row to fall six games behind Arizona.

“You try to do your best out there, you try to stay positive, but it does get hard when you keep losing games in the standings to two teams instead of one,” Aurilia said. “It’s more of an uphill battle. We don’t want to dig a deeper hole for ourselves.”