With Maddux and Lofton, L.A. Is Aging Gracefully

The standings will say this Dodgers victory was about a wild card.

The truth is, it was about marked cards.

It was about two aging, slightly faded, dog-eared guys who understand when the money is on the table and the sweat is on the fingertips.

Sitting coolly Tuesday night in what has once again become baseball hell, the Dodgers won by playing them both.

They flipped Greg Maddux for six startling innings. They flipped Kenny Lofton for one strangling plate appearance. They grabbed an 11-4 victory over the Colorado Rockies to flip back into a postseason spot.

It was enough to make even hobbling Jeff Kent want to, well, you know.

“Look up and down our lineup, look at how we played tonight, you realize we have one thing that few people have,” he said, grinning. “We have a team.”

With five games remaining, that team strutted out of the Coors Field clubhouse late Tuesday wearing a brand-new, one-game wild-card lead like a new pair of jeans.

They are going to need every ounce of everything that Maddux and Lofton represent to hang on to it.

“You watch guys like that,” Marlon Anderson said. “You can’t help but be inspired by them.”

Start with Maddux, who trotted out a career 6.21 earned-run average at Coors Field, which looked even shakier considering that in the last month, it has become a run-scoring circus again.

“You wake up panicking and hope to get through six,” Maddux said.

He was right about the panicking part, as he struggled through the first inning, threatening his 3-0 lead by giving up two hits and throwing 26 pitches.

But he still held the Rockies scoreless, ending trouble by fooling Todd Helton into a nine-pitch foul-out.

And then he threw only 50 pitches in the next five innings combined.

Said Manager Grady Little: “It was vintage Greg Maddux.”

Said Maddux: “You battle, you keep going, you just keep going.”

And by leaving the game throwing so few pitches, it was as if he gave the Dodgers a doubleheader victory, because he can now pitch Saturday against the San Francisco Giants on three days’ rest, which thrills him.

“Absolutely,” he said.

If you had a career 22-7 record and 2.55 ERA on three days’ rest, well, you would be thrilled too.

“I don’t get as sore as I used to,” Maddux said, shrugging.

Because?

“Because I don’t throw hard enough to get sore,” he said, smiling.

And, oh yeah, this place that scares him so much? Maddux now has six wins here in his career, the most of any visiting pitcher in Coors Field history.

Lofton likes the place too. He has a .392 average here, which was bolstered by his first-inning, RBI triple down the right-field line.

But he was saving his best for later, the fifth inning, with the Dodgers leading 3-1, in a play that didn’t even affect the average.

Leading off against Jason Jennings, he watched three balls, then, on what he was sure was ball four, he dropped his bat and started to

It was called strike one.

“And usually, as a hitter, that’s trouble,” said Nomar Garciaparra, who was standing on deck. “Usually if you think you’ve walked and you don’t, you are hurting mentally and it’s tougher to finish the at-bat.”

But, oh, did Lofton ever finish it. He hit six consecutive foul balls before drawing ball four.

“That many foul balls mentally wears a pitcher down,” Kent said. “He’s like, ‘Oh man, what else do I have to throw here?’ ”

Jennings was worn down such that, two pitches later, he grooved one that Garciaparra dumped over the right-center field fence for a two-run homer that gave the Dodgers all the runs they needed.

“Kenny had the at-bat we needed to get to Jennings,” Little said. “It was the key at-bat of the game.”

Lofton left the game early and slipped out the back door of the clubhouse before he could address the issue, but his teammates couldn’t stop talking about it.

Said Anderson: “I stopped and watched.”

Said Kent: “That was the kind of at-bat that makes this team what it is.”

Remember Lofton’s walk last week that set up Garciaparra’s walkoff homer in the miracle game? This is how he has been playing for two months, with a .307 average since Aug. 1, showing life in his old legs.

And remember Maddux’s seven scoreless innings two starts ago against San Diego? This is the second time this month he has set the tone in a series opener, showing there is also life in his old arm.

Their ages are a combined 79 years.

Which is approximately how old General Manager Ned Colletti will feel this winter when deciding what to do with them.

Like Garciaparra, both are working on one-year contracts that will expire.

And, like Garciaparra, both are making enough late noise that postseason success could make it difficult to send them away.

“I will not make decisions on emotion,” Colletti said to this heart-on-his-sleeve columnist. “You will, but I won’t.”

But he was smiling when he said it, having just watched the old guys make his team young again, old breath fueling new life, five days left, emotion everywhere.

Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Plaschke, go to latimes.com/plaschke.