Navarro’s First Homer Is a Winner

Dioner Navarro will get today off.

Some would say it’s a well-deserved reprieve after the rookie catcher hit a walk-off home run against New York Met reliever Braden Looper with the count full and two out in the 10th inning, giving the Dodgers a 7-6 victory Friday night at Dodger Stadium.

It was the first career home run for Navarro, who was called up from triple-A Las Vegas on July 29.

The end of the game, which finished at 11:21 p.m. and lasted three hours, 39 minutes, overshadowed the previous day’s events.

The brutal outfield collision Thursday between the Mets’ center fielder, Carlos Beltran and their right fielder, Mike Cameron, had been replayed in highlight reels ad nauseam by the time the Mets arrived in town to face the Dodgers.

Once, the consensus seemed, was enough to see Beltran and Cameron diving into each other, face-to-face. Both went to San Diego hospitals, and neither was expected to play in the weekend series. Cameron’s season may be over.

Beltran had a concussion and a small fracture in his cheekbone and Cameron, who broke his nose and had numerous fractures in both cheekbones and a concussion, was due to undergo facial surgery Friday night, just before the first pitch at Dodger Stadium, more than 24 hours after the accident.

The Dodgers, hoping to take advantage of the Mets being short-handed, did not want to be crass, but Dodger Manager Jim Tracy pointed out that the Mets, who stole eight bases against his club in a Shea Stadium series last month, would be without 23 steals, the combined total of Beltran and Cameron.

Still, the game was tied, 6-6, after nine innings, thanks in part to Met outfielder Victor Diaz, who hit two mammoth home runs off Dodger starter Jeff Weaver

Diaz, whose first homer ran halfway up the left-field foul pole screen and whose second went 438 feet and midway up the left-field pavilion, had been called up from the Mets’ triple-A affiliate at Norfolk to replace Cameron.

The third-place Dodgers (52-63) are within six games of the San Diego Padres in the National League West. The Mets (58-57) fell five games behind the Houston Astros for the NL wild card.

After the Mets touched Weaver for a run on consecutive two-out doubles by David Wright and Cliff Floyd in the first inning, the Dodgers answered with three runs.

With the bases loaded and one out, Ricky Ledee’s sacrifice fly scored Oscar Robles. Ledee, who had been held out of day-to-day action because of a sore left hamstring, said the only discomfort he felt in it was from the needle that administered a cortisone shot this week.

Jason Phillips followed with a two-run double just over the head of Floyd in left.

Diaz tied the score with his two-run homer in the second and the Mets added two runs in the fifth on Wright’s two-run double to score Jose Reyes and Miguel Cairo, and another run in the sixth on Diaz’s homer to go up by three, 6-3.

The Dodgers rallied for three runs in the seventh off a tiring Victor Zambrano and reliever Aaron Heilman.

After Zambrano walked Jose Valentin and Navarro to start the inning, Heilman replaced Zambrano and pinch-hitter Hee-Seop Choi’s flare single to right loaded the bases.

Heilman then hit Cesar Izturis in the ribs with a pitch to score Valentin. Izturis was back in the lineup a day after sitting out with a stiff lower back.

Robles followed with a tying single through the left side of the infield. Navarro and Choi easily scored.

The Dodger rally ended, however, on a strike-him-out-throw-him-out double play, with Jeff Kent going down swinging and Met catcher Mike Piazza nailing Robles at second. Coincidentally, with the Dodger catchers having so many troubles throwing out base stealers, a former Dodger backstop not known for his defensive dexterity did just that to quell the uprising.

The Dodgers seemed to be in business when Ledee led off the eighth with a single off the left leg of Met reliever Roberto Hernandez. Ledee was replaced on the basepaths by Jason Repko.

Phillips’ sacrifice bunt moved Repko to second before a Hernandez wild pitch allowed Repko to scamper to third.

Valentin then walked and stole second, putting runners at second and third with one out and the count full on Navarro, who milked a walk to load the bases for pinch-hitter Olmedo Saenz.

Saenz struck out and Izturis followed by popping out to shallow left.

In the ninth, Milton Bradley, batting from the left side, doubled down the third-base line with one out and the Mets then issued an intentional walk to Jeff Kent, who will be given today off.

Jose Cruz Jr., acquired in a trade Tuesday, pinch-hit for Repko and lined a shot at Met first baseman Jose Offerman, who quickly doubled up Kent to end the inning.

In the other dugout, the thoughts were on Cameron. Floyd said he spoke to Cameron on Thursday night.

“His exact words, ‘Other than my face, I’m fine,’ ” Floyd said. “I took that as cheeks, nose and mouth are jacked up. Everything else is OK ... he said it felt like his face broke apart.

“Being in L.A., in California, you know they’ve got the best plastic surgeons here. He’ll be all right.”