Nomo Befits Retiring Type for Dodgers

The Dodger season seemed to be teetering on the brink.

They hadn’t even played two full innings of their 5-3 victory over the San Diego Padres on Saturday and disaster was lurking from all directions.

The San Francisco Giants had already won, meaning a Dodger defeat would put them three games back in the wild-card race with seven games to play.

The Dodgers had lost their center fielder and leadoff man Dave Roberts in the first inning, the ecstasy of his game-opening home run turning to agony when it was learned he had strained a muscle on his right side, ending his evening and perhaps his season. Roberts will definitely miss today’s game and he was pessimistic Saturday night about returning for the final week.

Right-hander Hideo Nomo, the Dodgers’ last best hope on a torn and battered pitching staff, had just given up a three-run second-inning home run to Tom Lampkin.

Yet, having gazed into the abyss, the Dodgers somehow pulled themselves back from the edge and back into the postseason chase with a stirring comeback in front of a disappointed crowd of 48,208.

After that home run, Nomo retired 18 Padres in a row and won his seventh straight decision improving to 16-6.

Marquis Grissom, filling in for Roberts, drove in three runs, including a two-run single in the ninth inning off Padre relief ace Trevor Hoffman to break a 3-3 tie.

“That was just fun,” Grissom said. “There wasn’t too much pressure on myself. Just a fastball down and in. I had a good idea what [Hoffman] was going to try to do. He did a good job. I just got the bat out there on it.”

And Eric Gagne came on in the ninth to record his 50th save, the first Dodger and only the eighth man ever to reach that milestone.

Yet for all the Dodger heroics, the victory was ultimately clinched on a questionable move by the Padres’ Cesar Crespo.

With one out in the ninth, Ryan Klesko had doubled for San Diego. With two out, Sean Burroughs singled behind second base to put runners at first and third. Padre Manager Bruce Bochy put Crespo in as a pinch-runner at first and gave him the green light to run if he saw an opening.

With Gene Kingsale at the plate, Crespo took off and was gunned down when catcher Paul Lo Duca threw a strike to second baseman Alex Cora to end the game.

“Hideo Nomo, I have run out of adjectives to describe what this guy has meant to our ballclub,” said Manager Jim Tracy. “It has been well-chronicled how he was brought in here and what he was brought in here for. To turn into the ace of your staff and pitch the way this guy has pitched. It’s just been phenomenal.”

Roberts had hit only two home runs this season in 127 games. And he had previously hit only two homers in 75 games over a three-season span in his career.

This one came on a 2-2 pitch, the ball just making it over the wall in right field 336 feet away and into the first row of seats.

Given the luxury of a lead, Nomo didn’t hold it for long. With one out in the second, Kingsale hit a chopper to the mound that Nomo bobbled, allowing the San Diego left fielder to beat Nomo’s subsequent throw to first. After Brian Buchanan singled to right, Lampkin blasted Nomo’s first pitch into the right-field seats for his 10th home run.

It was the 25th home run allowed by Nomo, a club record.

The next Padre to get aboard was Ron Gant with a one-out pinch hit single in the eighth.

Still for all the postgame euphoria, there was gloom over Roberts’ condition.

“I even thought about getting out of that at-bat and having someone pinch-hit for me,” he said. “That’s how bad it was. I’m kind of down about it. It doesn’t look good.”