They’re Looking a Lot More Like Fall Guys Now

They keep sucking you in, don’t they?

Twenty days ago, the season was over, the franchise was ruined, Dan Evans was Kevin Malone -- Kevin Malone? -- and everybody was being fired or humiliated or something like that.

Then you turn around Thursday and Dave Roberts is flopping around on his back behind home plate, shirt splattered in run-scoring dirt.

And Odalis Perez is dancing out of the dugout waving an eight-inning towel.

And Cesar Izturis is bent over at third base, smiling a two-hit smile.

And here comes Eric Gagne, exhausted, laboring, saying he has never felt better.

Game over. Pennant race begun.

Fifteen years after their last playoff victory, the Dodgers apparently are going to make us pay attention in September again, hope being the one thing that News Corp. has never been able to steal.

“We have a good enough team to be there at the end,” Perez said Thursday afternoon, matter-of-factly, the salsa music turned off, the smile gone, and you believe him.

His team had just carved out a 2-1 victory over the Montreal Expos in the sort of game that is played every night in October, the sort of game that the Dodgers win.

The best pitching staff in baseball gave up one run and stranded eight runners. One of baseball’s best middle-infield defenses caught everything. And hamstring-happy Roberts ran like the dickens, challenging the arm of Vladimir Guerrero, scoring the winning run by forcing a play that catcher Brian Schneider couldn’t make.

“This time of year, it comes down to pitching, defense, and who can make those plays,” Roberts said.

For all their ugly mornings this season, the Dodgers can look in the mirror today and see all three features.

For all the crowding at the top of the wild-card race, they are but three games behind in the loss column with 36 games remaining.

For all the criticism of Evans, they are but one bench acquisition from being a team that can win the race.

They have consecutive comeback wins in their final at-bat. They have 12 wins in their last 17 games. They have Gagne refusing to watch.

“It was always about us, the players in here, nobody else,” Roberts said.

Well, that, and their history under Jim Tracy.

In the last two Septembers and Octobers, the Dodgers have gone 27-27.

They collapsed in 2001 when a playoff berth seemed assured. They ran out of fire last season about a week short of the finish line.

In both cases, the final sprint seemed to be lacking direction and leadership.

This fall will be Tracy’s chance to fix that.

“The way we play, we’ve got a chance,” Izturis said.

Their lineup is not very attractive, especially on days like Thursday when Paul Lo Duca and Shawn Green are not in it.

But their pitching and defense will keep them in pennant-race games like this one. Witness Thursday’s fourth inning, when the Expos, leading 1-0, put runners on second and third with one out.

Schneider hit a grounder to Izturis, who, despite playing deep, knew that slow Todd Zeile was running from third, and threw him out at the plate.

“I thought about the runner before the play, I knew what I was going to do,” Izturis said. “We’re supposed to make plays like that.”

Acquired from Toronto two winters ago with Paul Quantrill for Luke Prokopec and Chad Ricketts -- Evans’ finest moment here? -- Izturis has a chance to become the National League’s version of Omar Vizquel.

If only he can hit, right?

Well, later Thursday, he hit, left-handed even, beginning in the sixth inning with Roberts on second.

The kid with a sub-.300 on-base percentage patiently worked the count to 3-and-1 against Zach Day, then drove the ball over Guerrero’s head in right field to score Roberts.

Remember when everyone was crying for the kid to stop switch-hitting and just bat right-handed? Well, they still are, but the Dodgers continue to insist that, at age 23, he is too young to restrict.

“Maybe if he was 27 or 28, but we don’t want to take something away from him that can be really special,” Tracy said.

Two innings later, he showed just how special, after Roberts began the winning rally with the hit of the game.

It was about 400 feet shorter than Guerrero’s home run, but Roberts’ two-out drag bunt single was far bigger.

After all, four innings earlier, he had struck out attempting a surprise bunt and, well ...

“I know what you’re thinking, that my confidence would be hurt and I wouldn’t want to try that again,” Roberts said. “I figured the Expos would be thinking the same thing. That’s why I did it.”

Then Izturis stepped up again, took two balls from Day, fouled off a pitch, then hit another liner into the right-field corner.

Even with Jeromy Burnitz due up next, with two out, both Roberts and third-base coach Glenn Hoffman had the same idea.

“We had to be aggressive, make them make the play,” Roberts said. “Thank goodness Hoffman was thinking the same thing.”

The relay throw from second baseman Henry Mateo beat Roberts, but catcher Brian Schneider couldn’t hold the ball on the short hop, and the run scored.

“It’s gonna be a fun September,” said Roberts, and if they can figure out a way to beat the mighty San Diego Padres, who could argue?

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com