Lights, camera, still no action
LOS ANGELES — When Dodgers pitcher Mark Hendrickson played baseball and basketball at Washington State, the Cougars became so adept at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory a verb was coined to describe it.
"To Coug" basically meant losing a game you should have won. Wednesday night, however, his Dodgers might have inspired a new term. Call it the "Reverse Coug," which means winning a game you should have lost.
Held to two runs and three hits through seven innings, the Dodgers got two infield hits, an opposite-field double and a two-run home run by Nomar Garciaparra in the eighth to turn a two-run deficit into a 6-4 victory over the San Francisco Giants.
The rally couldn't save Hendrickson, who, for the sixth time this season held the opposition to three or fewer earned runs yet failed to earn a win. But it did save the Dodgers, who were five outs away from their sixth loss in seven games. That would have pushed them two games back of Arizona in the National League West, their largest deficit in more than a month.
Rafael Furcal got the Dodgers on the right track, though, starting the comeback by beating out a ground ball to short. Juan Pierre followed with an infield single, then stole second, putting the tying runs in scoring position.
One out later, the tying runs came home on Luis Gonzalez's double just inside the left-field line off Randy Messenger (1-3). Garciaparra followed with his fifth homer of the season, then Takashi Saito made it stand up with a perfect ninth, retiring Dave Roberts on a broken-bat liner for the final out.
Saito then punctuated the win by grabbing the meat end of Roberts' bat and slinging it at the Giants hitter's feet.
The win went to Jonathan Broxton (4-2), although Hendrickson clearly deserved it more.
Pitching before a sellout crowd at Dodger Stadium, he held Barry Bonds and 23 other Giants to three hits in a season-high 6 2/3 innings. But he couldn't stop Omar Vizquel, who had San Francisco's other three hits, doubling three times, driving in two runs and scoring another to hand Hendrickson and the Dodgers a 4-2 deficit.
Hendrickson also threw two-thirds of his 93 pitches for strikes, did not walk a batter for the first time this season and retired the side in order four times in the first six innings. But in the two other instances the Giants scored with Vizquel doubling home Rich Aurilia both times, giving him as many extra-base hits in two at-bats Wednesday as he had had in his previous 25 games.
He doubled again with two out in the seventh and stole third standing up two pitches later. When pinch-hitter Kevin Frandsen followed with a bloop single to center, Vizquel walked home with the go-ahead run.
San Francisco tacked on what looked to be an insurance run against Broxton in the eighth on a bunt single by Rajai Davis and, after a two-out intentional walk to Bonds, an RBI single by Bengie Molina.
But if Hendrickson once again pitched well enough to win, Giants rookie Tim Lincecum pitched even better, giving up two hits in six innings. The right-hander made two mistakes, though, walking leadoff hitter Furcal in both the first and third innings and Pierre made him pay both times, driving Furcal in with a groundout and with a triple into the right-field corner.
That gave Pierre — who also stole his 43rd base and robbed Bonds of a hit with a sliding catch in the sixth — multiple RBIs in a game for just the second time since June 25.
