Dodgers Make Their Stand

After a grueling 14 hours and 4 minutes of baseball, 43 runs, 77 hits, 29 pitching changes, 1,265 pitches and a number of hand-wringing managerial decisions over a four-game span, the Dodgers and San Francisco Giants are right back where they started.

Dodger left-hander Odalis Perez threw a complete game and the Dodgers, in their second must-win situation against the Giants in nine days, throttled Livan Hernandez for six runs in the third inning en route to a 6-3 victory before 43,921 in Dodger Stadium on Thursday night, earning a split of a critical four-game series.

The Dodgers trailed San Francisco by one game in the National League wild-card race when the Giants arrived Monday. That deficit remained at one as the Giants boarded a plane for Milwaukee late Thursday night and the Dodgers packed their bags for San Diego, but now there are only nine games left in the regular season.

“To have a game like this, where you go from a potential three-game deficit to one game is huge,” said Dodger second baseman Mark Grudzielanek, who opened the decisive third inning with a double. “This was huge. This was a game we needed, no ifs, ands or buts about it.”

The Dodgers were in a similar predicament Sept. 11 in San Francisco, when, after losing the first two games of a three-game series, they fell a game behind the Giants in the wild-card race and were in danger of falling two games back.

Hideo Nomo came up huge that day, gutting out a 6 2/3-inning, two-run, six-hit, 132-pitch effort to lead the Dodgers to a 7-3 victory. Thursday night, it was Perez who might have saved the Dodger season, giving up three runs on seven hits, striking out seven and walking two.

Perez limited the heart of the Giant order--Jeff Kent, Barry Bonds and Benito Santiago--to two singles in 10 at-bats. Tsuyoshi Shinjo’s RBI groundout made it 6-1 in the fifth, and Reggie Sanders’ two-run home run in the ninth made it 6-3.

Perez gave an overworked bullpen a much-needed night off, though closer Eric Gagne was warming up in the eighth and ninth, but Perez’s 119-pitch effort may prevent the Dodgers from bringing him back on three days’ rest next week.

The Dodgers open a three-game series against the Padres tonight and then return home for two games against Colorado and four against San Diego. The Giants open a three-game series against the lowly Brewers tonight and then return to San Francisco for two games against San Diego and three against Houston.

If it has a bearing on the standings, the Giants would have to travel to Atlanta for a makeup game on Monday, Sept. 30, the day after the regular season ends. If, after that game, the Giants and Dodgers have the same record, they would meet in a one-game playoff on Oct. 1 in San Francisco to determine the wild-card winner

“There’s a big difference between a one-game deficit and a three-game deficit,” Manager Jim Tracy said. “With nine games to go, it doesn’t get much better than that. A three-game deficit would have made it very difficult. Not impossible, but it would have been a big hill to climb up.”

Instead, the Dodgers put the Giants in a huge hole in the third. Grudzielanek opened with a flare to shallow right, where Sanders, after a long run, came within inches of a diving catch. The ball popped out of Sanders’ glove as he hit the ground, and Grudzielanek had a double.

Alex Cora lined a single to left, but Grudzielanek could only take third. Perez bunted toward first, but Hernandez dropped the ball on the glove-to-hand exchange, Perez was safe, and the Dodgers had the bases loaded.

Dave Roberts grounded a sharp single to right field, scoring two runs, the leadoff batter’s first runs batted in since Aug. 17. Paul Lo Duca’ bunt was turned into a force at third, but Shawn Green walked on four pitches, loading the bases for Brian Jordan.

Jordan didn’t match Monday’s grand slam, but he grounded a double past David Bell at third base and into the left-field corner, scoring three runs for a 5-0 lead. Eric Karros’ RBI double made it 6-0 and knocked out Hernandez.