Perez Pulls Another Fast ‘One’

Dodger left-hander Odalis Perez knocked on history’s door again Tuesday night, but for the second time this season, a no-hitter remained just on the other side of the threshold, close enough to touch but too far away to grasp.

Perez threw a complete-game one-hitter with six strikeouts in a 4-0 victory over the Colorado Rockies before 23,635 in Dodger Stadium, his only blemish Bobby Estalella’s soft single over shortstop Cesar Izturis’ head to lead off the sixth inning.

Perez, who needed only 87 pitches--60 strikes--to shut down the National League’s best-hitting and highest-scoring team in 1 hour and 55 minutes, faced 28 batters, one over the minimum.

It was almost a carbon copy of his one-hit shutout of the Chicago Cubs on April 26, when Perez (9-3) faced the minimum 27 batters and came within a Corey Patterson seventh-inning, bad-hop infield single of throwing a perfect game.

“At some point [Tuesday] night, just like in Chicago, it crossed my mind that I could throw a no-hitter,” said Perez, who is 5-0 with a 2.03 earned-run average in his last six starts and a strong candidate to make the NL All-Star team.

“Will I ever get one? I’m working on it. If I can get through the seventh inning with a no-hitter, I’m not going to allow anyone to break it up.”

Perez, 23, does not seem like the no-hitter type. His fastball tops out at 91 mph, and though he has an excellent slider and changeup, neither is considered dominating.

But Perez, acquired from the Atlanta Braves in the Gary Sheffield trade in January, has impeccable control and command, especially early in the count, when he throws enough quality strikes to induce plenty of swings but marginal contact.

Perez, who has three complete games this season, went to three-ball counts on only three batters Tuesday night, walking one. Of Colorado’s 28 at-bats, 13 lasted two pitches or less. Perez has walked 15 in 116 innings this season, the third-best walks-per-nine-innings percentage in the league.

“One hitter over the minimum is like a slow death,” Rocky Manager Clint Hurdle said. “He’s not like Randy Johnson, who rolls over you. He’s like an assassin, who comes quietly and then kills you.”

Perez’s gem moved the first-place Dodgers 1 1/2 games ahead of Arizona in the NL West and tied them with the New York Yankees and Seattle Mariners for the best record in baseball at 47-29.

Dodger right fielder Shawn Green backed Perez with two diving catches, of Estalella’s sinking liner in the third inning and Juan Uribe’s flare in the eighth.

Paul Lo Duca hit a solo home run in the first inning, and Eric Karros added a two-run homer in the sixth, both off Colorado starter John Thomson (6-7), providing plenty of offense, and Perez got himself an insurance run in the eighth when he led off with a double and scored on Lo Duca’s sacrifice fly.

Perez breezed through the first five innings, needing only 48 pitches to blank the Rockies, before Estalella reached out for a 2-2 changeup and got just enough of it to loft it into shallow left-center.

After Thomson struck out, Juan Pierre hit a slow roller to short. Izturis charged and made a quick throw to first to nail Pierre, but Estalella never stopped around second. Karros, the first baseman, fired to third baseman Adrian Beltre, who applied the tag to complete an inning-ending double play.

Perez, who has limited opponents to a .207 average (84 for 406), retired the last nine batters to complete the game.

“That, in my opinion, was an inch or two away from being a no-hitter,” Dodger Manager Jim Tracy said. “The hit Estalella got, it was definitely the right pitch, it just didn’t fade quite enough. Otherwise, I think he would have struck out.”

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ONE-HIT WONDERS

Odalis Perez’s second one-hitter of the season matches the Los Angeles Dodger record but leaves him two short of the major league mark for one season. The top one-season, one-hit performances:

NATIONAL LEAGUE

4 Grover Alexander, Philadelphia, 1915

AMERICAN LEAGUE

3 Addie Joss, Cleveland, 1907

Dave Stieb, Toronto, 1988

LOS ANGELES DODGERS

2 Orel Hershiser, 1985

Odalis Perez, 2002