Stults Helps Dodgers Split

Is it too late to call up Harold Eckert and William Juarez?

For the second time in three games, a Dodger making his first major league start took the bark out of the alpha male of the National League, the New York Mets.

In a heated pennant race. With a dominant performance.

This time it was Eric Stults, who spent most of the season in a triple-A Las Vegas rotation with other unheralded pitchers such as Eckert and Juarez. Stults, a soft-throwing left-hander, held the Mets to two hits in six innings, and the Dodgers earned a series split with a 9-1 victory Sunday at Shea Stadium.

The Mets beat veterans Brad Penny and Greg Maddux but couldn’t handle Stults or Hong-Chih Kuo, another rookie left-hander who pitched six innings of three-hit ball in his first start Friday.

And to think, three years ago Stults and Kuo were toiling in a Vero Beach, Fla., gym, rehabilitating from ligament replacement surgery in their elbows.

“They gave us a huge lift just when we needed it,” center fielder Kenny Lofton said. “Eric showed such great composure, here in New York with the fans yelling and everything. Just like Kuo a couple days ago.”

The Mets passed the 3-million mark in attendance for the first time since 1988 by drawing 48,760 on a sunny afternoon. Although the Mets have all but clinched the NL East, the Dodgers are holding a precarious 1 1/2 -game lead over the San Diego Padres in the West, creating a series marked by Dodgers tension and Mets elation.

Certainly, the Dodgers had more motivation to play well a day after losing a one-run game and facing the prospect of their three-city trip turning disastrous. Now they’ve won three of seven heading to Chicago. Not great, but good enough to hold serve as a new week begins.

Manager Grady Little, in fact, acknowledged for the first time that the wild-card berth had crowded its way into his thoughts. Until now, all he has wanted to discuss was winning the division.

“What we want is to get into postseason play,” he said. “We still feel good about our ballclub and our ballclub feels good about itself.”

Little keeps two ledgers on his desk. One is for the division title, charting the records of the Dodgers, Padres and San Francisco Giants. Little’s magic number is 87 victories, and the Dodgers must go 11-8 to reach it.

The other ledger is for the wild-card race and includes every team with a mathematical shot at it. Little’s magic number is 85 victories, and the Dodgers could stumble to a 9-10 finish and get there.

“Once you get into the playoffs, it’s like a different season starts,” he said. “We’d prefer the title, but the wild card gets you in too.”

More performances like this one and the title would seem reachable. The Dodgers scored four runs in the third inning against Steve Trachsel, the key blow a bases-loaded triple by Lofton.

Nomar Garciaparra brought in Lofton with a single, then delivered the knockout blow in the sixth by belting a three-run home run for a 9-1 lead. Little lifted Stults, who threw 86 pitches -- the most effective among them a devastating changeup -- and substituted at every position but third base in the last three innings.

The Mets also emptied their bench, resulting in the rare sight of 48-year-old Julio Franco playing third base for the first time since 1982.

Stults and Kuo made history too. The last time the Dodgers had two pitchers make their first major league starts in one series was 1960 at the Coliseum.

Jim Golden and Phil Ortega started in the final series of the season after the Dodgers were eliminated from contention.

No word on whether Ortega was buoyed by Golden’s performance, but watching Kuo certainly helped Stults, whose wife and parents were in the stands, as well as a dozen friends. He capped his day by getting his first major league hit.

“Watching Kuo calmed me,” Stults said. “And it was special because we went through a lot of the same injuries and had a lot of the same doubts.”

Misgivings about the Dodgers seem to ebb and flow with each passing day.

“This was the first time Eric Stults had to perform,” Lofton said. “At this point in the season we all have to perform. It’s that time of year.”

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steve.henson@latimes.com