Caminiti Hits Dodgers With Deep Impact

San Diego Padre Manager Bruce Bochy considered giving third baseman Ken Caminiti Sunday off to take care of a sore wrist, but Caminiti declined.

The rest was history.

Caminiti went out and shellacked the Dodgers with the old 1-2-3 combination, a right and a right and then a haymaker left.

Batting right-handed, Caminiti hit consecutive, concussive home runs against new Dodger starter Brian Bohanon in the first and third innings. Then, batting left-handed in the eighth, Caminiti ripped an Antonio Osuna fastball into the left-field seats for a two-run homer that lifted the San Diego Padres to a 6-3 victory before 42,056 and personally pricked the Dodgers’ hopes of gaining ground on the division leaders as this four-game series was completed.

“We lost the first two here, so it was important that we come back, and that’s what we did,” said Caminiti, whose throwing error at third base keyed the Dodgers’ 6-2 victory on Friday. “It was basically my fault we lost one of those. So it was big for us.”

The loss left the Dodgers right back where they started this series--13 1/2 games behind the NL West front-running Padres, after narrowing it to 11 1/2.

Two steps forward. Two steps back. And there go another four days of this hectic, half-baked Dodger season.

“You’ve got to look at the positive: We didn’t go any further back,” said Dodger catcher Charles Johnson. “We’re staying steady. There’s no letdown at all. You just have to go to the next series and win the next series.”

Next up for the Dodgers are the second-place San Francisco Giants, who lead the Dodgers by 6 1/2 games in the NL wild-card race and start a three-game series at Dodger Stadium tonight.

After gaining zero ground on the Padres, catching the Giants, who lost three straight to the Rockies in Colorado after the All-Star break, now becomes the Dodgers’ only realistic playoff hope.

“I don’t know about making a statement, we just had a couple of days where we didn’t play as well as we have all year,” Padre pitching coach Dave Stewart said. “For me, it was important just to get back to playing good ball.

“With the lead we have, we didn’t come into this thinking it was a really crucial series. But you don’t want to give any team the thought that they can beat you. You never want to do that.”

With the left-handed Bohanon making his first start for the Dodgers after being acquired from the New York Mets, Caminiti muscled a first-inning change-up high into the left-field bleachers with a runner on to give San Diego a quick 2-0 lead.

Padre starter Joey Hamilton struggled in the early-going, giving up two Dodger runs in the first and then another in the second, as the Dodgers took a 3-2 lead.

But Hamilton (7-9) settled down, keeping the Dodgers scoreless for the rest of his six-inning outing, then Caminiti struck again.

Four batters after Hamilton led off the Padre third inning with his fourth career homer to tie it, Caminiti went opposite field with another Bohanon change-up, sending the ball over the right-field wall for a 4-3 lead.

Then, against Osuna in the eighth, Caminiti guided a high line drive over the short fence down the left-field line. Trevor Hoffman finished it up for the Padres, pitching the ninth for his 27th save.

“The ball seemed like it was flying today,” said Bohanon (2-5), who gave up four runs and five hits in four innings. “I thought the second one was a pretty good pitch. He went down and got it and it carried out.”

It was Caminiti’s first career three-home run game (his 13th, 14th and 15th homers of the season), and the National League-record ninth time he has hit home runs from both sides of the plate in the same game.

So, while Tony Gwynn continued the longest hitless drought of his career (his zero for three on Sunday made him hitless in his last 17 at-bats, after having never gone more than 14 at-bats without a hit); and MVP candidate Greg Vaughn went zero for four, the Padres had plenty of offense.

“Vaughny’s been carrying the team for a long time,” Caminiti said. “Tony’s been struggling. I’ve been struggling. But everybody in this lineup has done something to pick us up. Today was my day, I guess.”