Dodgers in Need of Biggest Rally Yet

St. LOUIS -- Is there a 54th come-from-behind victory, if needed, for the Dodgers, a 27th win in their final at-bat, more thunder in the bat of Adrian Beltre, more lightning in the swing of Steve Finley, more speed-gun-rattling power in the arm of Eric Gagne?

For all the drama and excitement generated by the Dodgers in arguably their best season in 16 years, they find themselves on the edge of yet another abyss tonight at Busch Stadium, their fingers frantically clinging to the edge of a cliff, elimination waiting two games away.

The Dodgers lost the opener of a best-of-five division series to the St. Louis Cardinals Tuesday in Busch Stadium, 8-3. Game 2 is tonight, with the teams switching to Dodger Stadium for Game 3, and Game 4 if necessary, Saturday and Sunday. A fifth game, if required, would be played back here Monday.

After giving up five home runs to the Cardinals in Game 1, the Dodgers will send to the mound Jeff Weaver, who gave up a walk-off home run his last postseason appearance.

Still, only someone who hadn’t watched the Dodgers stage rally after rally down the stretch would rule out yet another one.

But the Cardinals’ Game 1 victory could hardly be classified a fluke. After all, this is a team that won 105 games in the regular season, led the league in batting average and runs scored and features a lineup so powerful that Larry Walker, a three-time batting champion, hits second.

The Cardinals have made more than one team look as if it is throwing batting practice, and they did so again Tuesday with Walker hitting two home runs. Joining him in the home-run trot were Albert Pujols, Jim Edmonds and Mike Matheny.

Dodger Manager Jim Tracy, who never lost his optimism in the face of all those leads that had to be overcome, all those opposing pitchers who had to be broken, is at it again.

“It really worked out for them,” Tracy said of the Cardinals. “Six of their eight runs were scored after two were out, nobody on base.... If you put those innings down, you change the complexion of the game entirely.”

Trying to change the complexion of today’s game is Weaver (13-13, 4.01 earned-run average), a right-hander who made a career-high 34 starts this season.

“Jeff Weaver could have very easily won 17 or 18 games this year,” Tracy said, “without doing anything differently, not one thing. For us to get an extra hit here or there, or have a situational bat at the right time, Weaver wins at least four or five more games.”

Weaver is focused on what might have been. But not in this year’s regular season. Rather he’s still focused on last year’s postseason when he was a New York Yankee. That can’t be good news for the Dodgers, considering the last pitch Weaver threw in the postseason ended up as a deciding 12th-inning home run to the Florida Marlins’ Alex Gonzalez in Game 4 of the World Series.

“I don’t think it’s ever going to leave my mind,” Weaver said. “Of course, I’ve been thinking about this a long time in order to kind of have a happy highlight instead of a sour one, so I can’t wait.”

It’s not only the postseason that offers a cautionary note for Weaver. He gave up nine earned runs in 13 innings in two regular-season starts against the Cardinals.

St. Louis Manager Tony La Russa will counter with right-hander Jason Marquis (15-7). Marquis had no decisions and a 5.53 ERA in 21 appearances last year with the Atlanta Braves before coming to St. Louis in an off-season trade.

A key to Marquis being selected for this crucial start is his record on four days’ rest, La Russa said. When pitching on the fifth day, Marquis was 8-3 with a 2.46 ERA.

“He was the only guy you could really guarantee goes on four days’ rest,” La Russa said. “If he remembers to breathe, he’ll be all right.”

Stuck on the edge of that abyss, the Dodgers must also remember to breathe. But it has been a while since they exhaled in the postseason.

The last time was in 1988 when the Dodgers beat the Oakland Athletics in the fifth and deciding game of the World Series.

Since then, including Tuesday’s game, the Dodger have played seven postseason games. And lost them all.