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Dodgers Make Their Stand

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

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.

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“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.

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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.

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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.

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