No Cause for Celebration

Only one game separates the Dodgers from the prize they want, and guess who’s still blocking the door?

The San Francisco Giants turned up the heat on their longtime rivals Friday night in winning the opener of the teams’ final regular-season series, 4-2, in front of another sellout crowd of 54,888 at Dodger Stadium.

San Francisco prevented the National League West leaders from claiming their first division title in nine years, staving off elimination in the division race and remaining tied with the Houston Astros for the league’s wild-card berth.

“We’ve still got it in our minds to win the division,” said former Dodger Marquis Grissom, whose two-run double in the second staked Giant starter Kirk Rueter to a 2-0 lead.

“We’re not thinking about the wild card. You can’t think about second place.”

Rueter (9-12) worked seven strong innings, setup man Jim Brower pitched a scoreless eighth while appearing in the team’s eighth consecutive game and closer Dustin Hermanson retired Steve Finley, Adrian Beltre and Shawn Green -- the heart of the Dodger order -- in the ninth to nail down his 17th save and the victory for the NL West’s second-place team.

Although the Dodgers (92-68) again pitched cautiously to Barry Bonds, walking the future Hall of Famer three times, including twice intentionally, others delivered offensively for the Giants (90-70).

Grissom had a timely two-run hit (after Bonds walked to begin the second), Michael Tucker contributed a run-scoring single in the seventh and J.T. Snow’s solo home run, his 12th, in the eighth provided the final two-run cushion.

Jeff Weaver (13-13) wasn’t as sharp as Rueter, but he also provided a solid foundation for the Dodgers in seven innings. Weaver gave up six hits and three runs with four walks (two intentional) and five strikeouts, throwing 53 strikes in 90 pitches.

But the Giants did just enough against Weaver and Mike Venafro.

With Bonds due up first in the eighth, Manager Jim Tracy summoned the left-handed specialist to relieve Weaver. Bonds grounded out to second on a shift, and Venafro worked a 2-and-1 count on Snow, who hit his first homer off a left-hander in more than two years.

“We’re like a bad cold that doesn’t go away,” Snow said. “I’m sure they feel confident, but so do we.”

Olmedo Saenz hit his eighth homer for the Dodgers and Steve Finley connected on his 35th overall and 12th since joining the team, but the Dodgers had only four hits on a night they had prepared to celebrate.

“I’m not worried about the offense, and nobody in here is worried about the offense,” Jayson Werth said. “We’re still in the driver’s seat. This wouldn’t even be as big a deal if it wasn’t the last three games of the season.”

However, it is the last three games, and now things could get interesting again.

The Dodgers send Elmer Dessens to the mound today for his first start since joining the team, hoping to avoid having to face Giant ace Jason Schmidt on Sunday with the division undecided.

“If we win tomorrow, I’ll take [Schmidt] against anybody,” Rueter said. “I don’t know how confident they’ll feel if they’ve got to beat [Schmidt] on Sunday.”

However unlikely, a scenario exists in which the Dodgers might miss the playoffs if they lose the next two games against the Giants and drop potential tiebreaker games for the division championship and wild-card berth.

Not surprisingly, the Dodgers are eager to end the suspense quickly.

“We don’t want to go to Sunday. We want to end it right here,” Jose Lima said. “We’ve got to do it now. We don’t want to wait until Monday.

“But they’ve got to beat us. They’ve got to beat us every game and they can’t do it. We came a long way for this.”

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What If ... ?

Scenarios that include the Dodgers:

VERY WILD

* The Giants sweep the Dodgers and Astros sweep the Rockies, leaving the Dodgers, Giants and Astros with the same record:

The Dodgers and Giants would have a one-game playoff Monday in San Francisco to determine the West champion. The loser would play the Astros in a one-game playoff Tuesday to determine the wild-card winner. If the Giants lose the one-game playoff to the Dodgers, the game will be played in San Francisco; if the Dodgers lose the Dodger-Giant game, a coin flip will determine which team plays at home.

1-2 IN WEST

* A Giant sweep over the Dodgers, combined with an Astro loss, would give San Francisco the NL West title based on a 10-9 season record against the Dodgers. The Dodgers would be the wild-card team in this scenario.

BACKING IN

* Any loss by the Astros over the weekend guarantees the Dodgers at least a wild-card spot.

THE EASY WAY

* A win by the Dodgers over the weekend guarantees them the NL West title.