Dodgers Rally in the Ninth

It is the most helpless feeling a team can endure.

The Chicago Cubs did a lot of things right Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium in front of a crowd of 40,007.

They got a solid pitching performance from starter Kevin Tapani. They got a perfectly executed relay play to enable catcher Sandy Martinez to deny the Dodgers a run at the plate.

And they got just enough offense to take a lead into the ninth inning.

But ultimately, they were left standing and staring as Martinez desperately and uselessly chased a wild pitch off the arm of Rod Beck as pinch-runner Tripp Cromer came home with the winning run, enabling the Dodgers to come back and pull out a 3-2 victory.

The triumphant Dodgers weren’t about to offer any sympathy to the Cubs. When it comes to helpless feelings, the Dodgers have been there and done that themselves in an up-and-down season that seems to alternate nightly between delirious joy and desperate depression.

Wednesday had a bit of both, but the Dodgers were able to rally with a run in the eighth and two in the ninth to pull out the win that allowed them to improve to 19-15 and finish the six-game home stand even at 3-3. Todd Hundley led off the ninth with the tying homer against Beck.

Dodger starter Darren Dreifort started out strong, holding the Cubs hitless through the first 3 2/3 innings.

But when he lost it, he lost it quickly.

In the third, Sammy Sosa doubled to break up the no-hitter. In the fifth, third baseman Tyler Houston, a left-handed hitter, homered to the opposite field, his third homer of the season. In the sixth, Lance Johnson and Jose Hernandez led off with back-to-back singles.

When Johnson scored from third on a wild pitch to boost Chicago into a 2-0 lead, Dodger Manager Davey Johnson had seen enough.

He pulled Dreifort, who entered the game second in the league in run support but wouldn’t get any help this night.

Pedro Borbon and Jamie Arnold shut down the Cubs the rest of the way.

And the Dodger offense finally awoke in the eighth inning against Tapani, who had held the Dodgers scoreless on three hits through seven innings.

Beltre opened the eighth with a single. When pinch-hitter Dave Hansen smacked a double into right field, Beltre tried to come home, figuring it would take a perfect play to get him.

And that’s exactly what the Cubs got.

Sosa played the carom off the right-field wall smoothly and quickly and fired a strike to the relay man.

Next came second baseman Mickey Morandini. He turned and fired a perfect strike of his own to home plate.

Finally came Martinez. Beltre appeared to reach home plate before Morandini’s throw, as good as it was. But Martinez, using his left leg, blocked the plate, cutting Beltre off a few inches short, and causing a collision that ripped open Beltre’s pant leg and sliced his skin.

Beltre was out and the Dodgers were still scoreless.

When Jose Vizcaino also doubled, after an Eric Young groundout, Hansen came in to score, cutting the Chicago lead to 2-1.

With Beck on the mound in the ninth inning to try to close the Dodgers out, Hundley opened up with a towering home run to right field to even the score.

Eric Karros followed with a double to left and Cromer ran for him. Todd Hollandsworth was walked intentionally and Beltre sacrificed, putting runners on second and third. Mark Grudzielanek was the pinch-hitter for Arnold, but Beck gave the Dodgers the victory with his wild pitch.