Dodgers Take It to (Outer) Limit, 6-4

PITTSBURGH —  Rod Serling should have been the announcer for this one.

David Copperfield should have been the first baseman.

With perhaps Men in Black as the umpires and a haunted house as the site.

Dodger catcher Mike Piazza described his team’s 6-4 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Tuesday, as “very strange, like the Twilight Zone.”

How else to describe a game won by Darren Dreifort (5-1), who served as the closer, a game in which:

--One ball stayed hidden in Dodger first baseman Eric Karros’ glove long enough for him to tag out Jermaine Allensworth, allowing the Dodgers to escape with the bases loaded in the ninth.

Or did they?

While the Dodgers were congratulating themselves, home-plate umpire Bill Hohn stepped forward and said he had called time.

--Another ball was popped up by the Pirates with the bases loaded in the seventh inning. The Dodgers breathed a collective sigh of relief at getting out of a jam.

Or did they?

Not quite, because Piazza and Karros, collided, allowing the ball to drop in and two runs to score.

--A third ball jammed Karros, who was at the plate with two men aboard in the ninth inning and the score tied, 4-4. This time, it was the Pirates who got out of trouble.

Or did they?

Instead, the ball mysteriously found its way past Pittsburgh second baseman Tony Womack, the go-ahead run scoring when right fielder Jose Guillen, who had Piazza clearly caught off second, bounced the ball into the Dodger dugout.

“It was surreal,” Piazza said in the Dodger clubhouse, still shaking his head at the twists and turns in Three Rivers Stadium that ultimately resulted in a victory that kept the Dodgers on top of the NL West by half a game over the San Francisco Giants, who also won.

Lost in all this was one of the best pitching performances of the season by Dodger starter Chan Ho park.

He was staked to a 4-0, first-inning lead with a Piazza single driving in one run, a Raul Mondesi single sending home two more and the final run coming across on a sacrifice fly by Greg Gagne.

Park gave back one run in the bottom of the inning, Al Martin hitting his 10th homer of the season to dead center.

But after that, Park retired 16 in a row, cruising into the seventh inning.

But he cruised no further.

Two singles and a walk loaded the bases for the Pirates with two out. Jason Kendall then hit a high popup, what Piazza called “one of the highest I’ve ever seen.”

The problem was, Park didn’t call for anybody to catch it.

“I was upset because I missed the call,” Park said.

Piazza looked around, saw Karros and third baseman Todd Zeile standing back, and decided to go for the ball.

So did Karros, who could hear nothing because of the roar of the crowd of 13,689.

Karros and Piazza collided, the ball bouncing off Piazza’s collarbone, off Karros and finally onto the artificial turf with two runs scoring to make it a 4-3 game.

Another walk loaded the bases again, and on came reliever Darren Hall, who walked pinch-hitter Eddie Williams to force in the tying run.

In the Dodger ninth, with two men aboard, Karros got the hit that put his team ahead off Pittsburgh reliever Rich Loiselle, fellow reliever Ricardo Rincon (4-7) getting saddled with the loss.

“It was luck, pure luck,” Karros said. “He jammed me to death, but I’ll take it.”

Mondesi followed with an RBI single, but there was still the bottom of the ninth to worry about.

Manager Bill Russell stressed that he stuck with Dreifort rather than going with his regular closer, Todd Worrell, because Worrell had pitched on four of the previous five days, not because Worrell had blown a save Monday.

With two out, Dreifort loaded the bases on two singles and a walk.

“I waited for [Allensworth] to get off the bag,” said Karros, who received the ball from Zeile and hid it. “I tagged him and [first base umpire Ed Rapuano] said, ‘Show me the ball.’ I did and he rang him up. I thought we were out of there.”

Instead, Dreifort was forced to pitch to Martin, whom he got on a grounder to first to end the game.

How strange that such a game should end on such a normal play.

Serling obviously didn’t write the script.

*

* GIANTS WIN

Snow’s three-run homer is the big blow in victory over the Mets. C5

* OUCH!

Broken toe suffered on freak play might knock Cedeno out for the season. C7