Dodgers Waste Beltre’s Homer

No longer are the Dodgers running away with the National League West. They are, however, inviting their rivals back into a division race suddenly too close for comfort.

They lost a game they should have lost Monday, but in painful fashion. The Dodgers erased a six-run deficit for the first time this season, then lost to the Montreal Expos, 8-7, on a bases-loaded walk by Giovanni Carrara in the bottom of the ninth inning.

The Dodgers had a 7 1/2 -game lead on Aug. 11, and they have never blown so large a lead so late in the season since moving to L.A.

But, after the Dodgers lost Monday for the fourth time in six games, the San Francisco Giants lurk only four games behind.

“I really don’t get the sense there’s any panic,” catcher Brent Mayne said. “I haven’t sensed that with this team at all.”

After the game, Manager Jim Tracy met behind closed doors with pitching coach Jim Colborn and assistant general manager Kim Ng, discussing options for patching a weary bullpen. The Expos dismissed the usually reliable Odalis Perez in four innings on Monday, meaning Dodger relievers have thrown 12 1/3 innings over the last two days, with the often unreliable Kazuhisa Ishii starting tonight.

The Dodgers rallied from a 7-1 deficit, with Steve Finley doubling home three runs in the seventh and Adrian Beltre tying the score with a one-out, two-run home run off Montreal closer Chad Cordero in the ninth. Beltre reclaimed the major league lead in home runs with 39.

With the Dodgers threatening to take the lead, closer Eric Gagne warmed up. But, after Cordero escaped with the score tied, Carrara returned for his second inning of work.

With one out, Brian Schneider doubled, and the Dodgers intentionally walked Brad Wilkerson. Carrara threw two balls to Alex Gonzalez, then struck him out.

The next feat defied statistics. Tony Batista, with 16 walks and 458 at-bats this season, worked the count full, fouled off the next four pitches, then drew ball four, loading the bases.

“I threw everything,” Carrara said.

Juan Rivera followed by walking on six pitches -- the last one a fastball Carrara said he tried to throw down the middle -- forcing home the winning run. Of the Dodgers’ last five losses, four have been charged to relievers, including this one to Carrara.

“He did everything he could do with Tony Batista,” Tracy said.

“Rivera put a good at-bat on him too. That happens.”

Mayne said he didn’t believe the circumstances of the game and of the Batista at-bat tired Carrara, who made 40 pitches in all, 31 in the ninth inning and 10 to Batista.

“I didn’t sense he was out of gas,” Mayne said. “It was just a real tense situation, and he was giving it all he had.”

So was Perez, who delivered his shortest start of the season. He had not given up a home run in 27 2/3 previous innings this month, but the Expos tagged him for three in four innings. He gave up a season-high seven runs and did not record a strikeout.

“I’m not going to be concerned about it,” he said.

“You’re going to have a game like that. I’m not perfect. Nobody is perfect. One day you are going to get crushed. It was one of those days.”

The Dodgers bemoaned not the ninth inning but the third. With the bases loaded and none out, Alex Cora popped up and Finley hit into a double play.

Said Finley: “That’s baseball. Throw it in the garbage can and come back tomorrow.”

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Big Belts

A look at some of Adrian Beltre’s key home runs this season:

* April 6: With Dodgers trailing Padres, 4-2, he hits two-run homer in bottom of the seventh to tie score. Dodgers go on to win, 5-4.

* May 1: With Dodgers trailing Montreal, 4-3, Beltre ties score in bottom of seventh with solo homer (his second of the game); he wins game in eighth with run-scoring single in 5-4 victory.

* June 17: In a 3-3 tie with Baltimore, Beltre homers in the bottom of the eighth in a 4-3 Dodger victory.

* July 20: With Dodgers trailing 4-1 at Houston, Beltre’s two-run homer caps a four-run seventh inning as L.A. takes a 5-4 lead and goes on to beat Astros, 7-5.

* July 23: Hits walk-off solo homer to give Dodgers a 3-2 victory over Padres.

* Aug. 20: With Dodgers trailing Atlanta, 2-1, in bottom of the ninth, Beltre homers to send the game into extra innings. In the 11th, he homers to give Dodgers a 3-2 victory.

* Aug. 23: Hits two-run homer in top of the ninth at Montreal to tie the score, 7-7, but Dodgers lose, 8-7.

-- Houston Mitchell