Beltre Has Dodger Victory in His Sight

What was expected to be a drab interleague series against the Kansas City Royals got off to an exhilarating start for the Dodgers on Tuesday night when they scored the decisive run in the ninth inning on three walks and a hit batsman.

Adrian Beltre drew a bases-loaded walk with two out to score Shawn Green for a 4-3 victory after watching home plate umpire Jeff Kellogg call borderline pitches balls on 2-and-2 and 3-and-2 counts.

As Beltre trotted toward first base after ball four, prompting the Dodger Stadium crowd of 26,409 to roar its approval, Royal Manager Tony Pena raced halfway toward home plate in protest.

“Most of the time we don’t get those calls,” said Beltre, who thought reliever D.J. Carrasco’s final pitch was a tad high and outside, “but tonight we did.”

Said Green: “It could have gone either way, but it worked out for us.”

Green got things started in the ninth with a one-out walk and took second on a wild pitch that brought the count against Fred McGriff to 2-and-1. With Green in scoring position, the Royals decided to walk McGriff intentionally to take their chances against Jolbert Cabrera.

Cabrera took a pitch off his elbow to load the bases and bring up Beltre, who had a single in his first four plate appearances.

“It was the only way we were going to win after so many chances,” said Cabrera, noting that the Dodgers stranded 13 baserunners.

Said closer Eric Gagne (1-1), who pitched a perfect ninth with two strikeouts: “Whatever we need to score some runs. It’s a walk, but it’s a win.”

The Dodgers (32-25), who moved back to within three games of the first-place San Francisco Giants in the National League West, have averaged three runs over their last seven games. Not surprisingly, they have lost five of those games.

But there were several signs Tuesday that a turnaround might be in the works.

Beltre’s single in the fourth gave him a season-high five-game hitting streak, and the third baseman has hit safely in seven of his last eight games. He is hitting .400 with six runs batted in during that span.

Odalis Perez rebounded from the worst outing of his career -- in which the Colorado Rockies drilled him for nine runs over three innings -- by giving up seven hits and three runs over seven innings. He struck out seven and did not walk a hitter for the first time in 11 starts this season.

The Dodgers turned matters over to their bullpen in the eighth, and things immediately became shaky when Paul Shuey issued a leadoff double to Joe Randa. Mike Sweeney, who did not reach base for the first time in 34 games, failed to move Randa over to third when he grounded out. Tom Martin replaced Shuey and recorded the final two outs.

The Dodgers had tied the first regular-season meeting between the teams in the seventh, when Paul Lo Duca led off with a single, moved to third on Green’s double and came home when McGriff grounded into a double play.

Lo Duca extended his hitting streak to 12 games, the most in his career, in the third with a double to right-center that moved Perez to third with two out.

But after walking Green, Jeremy Affeldt struck out Brian Jordan with the bases loaded to end the threat.

“This would have been a bad loss,” Lo Duca said. “We could have scored eight or nine runs.”

Lo Duca’s streak is the longest for the Dodgers since Beltre hit safely in 17 consecutive games from Aug. 25-Sept. 18, 2001. The catcher, who is hitting .490 during his streak, appears to have recaptured his form of 2001, when he hit .320 with 25 home runs and 90 RBIs.

“I think that would be a very apt comparison,” Manager Jim Tracy said.

The Royals took a 2-0 lead in the sixth thanks in part to two hits nearly gloved by the Dodgers. Desi Relaford led off with a bloop single that second baseman Cabrera almost chased down in shallow right field.

Randa followed with a single just over the glove of shortstop Cesar Izturis, putting runners at first and third. Relaford scored on Sweeney’s groundout and Randa scored on Raul Ibanez’s double.