Winning Ingredient Is a Pinch of Valentin

Once again, a crowd of reporters gathered around Jose Valentin’s locker.

On opening day it was to ask about an error that cost the Dodgers the game. The next day it was to talk about his three-run home run that propelled the team to victory.

And Friday night it was all about his two-run, pinch-hit homer with two out in the ninth inning that capped a four-run rally and gave the Dodgers an improbable 8-7 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks at Bank One Ballpark.

Well, maybe not so improbable.

The last time the Dodgers overcame a three-run lead in the ninth was only six months ago -- Oct. 2, 2004, when they clinched the National League West Division title by beating the San Francisco Giants on Steve Finley’s grand slam.

“The feeling in the dugout was just like last year,” shortstop Cesar Izturis said. “No one was giving up.”

Rather remarkable considering fewer than half the current Dodgers were on the roster last season.

“This is the kind of game that builds trust among us,” Valentin said. “We can draw on this experience later on in tough situations.”

Talk about tough situations. He has been in several already. Valentin is four for eight with two home runs and eight runs batted in. He also has three errors, and Olmedo Saenz started at third base in his place Friday.

Saenz hit a two-run home run in a four-run Dodger sixth inning, but not every third baseman escaped unscathed. Moments after hitting a three-run home run to snap a 4-4 tie in the eighth, Diamondback third baseman Troy Glaus misplayed a ground ball by Antonio Perez with one out in the ninth.

When Jason Phillips flew out deep to left, it appeared Diamondback closer Brandon Lyon might escape. But Ricky Ledee doubled off the center-field wall to score Perez, and Izturis hit a soft liner to right that former Dodger Shawn Green caught on a short hop, setting the table for Valentin.

Yhency Brazoban, filling in for the injured Eric Gagne, retired the side in order to notch his first career save.

“I was very emotional about it,” Brazoban said. “I was nervous, but very excited.”

Rookie Steve Schmoll, who pitched all of 19 2/3 innings above Class A before making the opening-day roster because of Gagne’s elbow injury, got the win despite giving up the home run to Glaus.

Schmoll will never forget his first victory and Brazoban will never forget his first save. But Green will gladly forget his first game against the team he played for the last five years.

Before going 0 for 3 and not quite catching up to the line drive in the ninth, he said it wasn’t so bad facing the Dodgers because there aren’t many of his former teammates left on the roster.

Green wasn’t the only player with something to prove to his former team. Dodger starter Elmer Dessens, who was unloaded by the Diamondbacks for a minor leaguer last August, gave the Dodgers their fourth good start in as many games, giving up two runs and four hits in 5 2/3 innings.

He had thrown only 66 pitches when Manager Jim Tracy lifted him with a runner on second and Luis Gonzalez at the plate. Tracy didn’t want him facing the Diamondback Killer Gs -- Gonzalez, Glaus and Green -- for a third time. Left-hander Kelly Wunsch gave up an RBI single to Gonzalez but retired Glaus.

Wunsch walked Green to open the seventh, throwing ball four well behind Green. Tracy summoned Buddy Carlyle, a non-roster invitee who spent the last four years in Japan and the minor leagues. The first batter he faced, Jose Cruz Jr., homered, tying the score, 4-4.

Left-hander Shawn Estes befuddled the Dodgers until the sixth, when the third time through the lineup they roughed him up for four runs. Izturis and Jason Repko hit singles, Jeff Kent drove in two runs with a double and Saenz homered.