It Ends Up Being Wild-Goose Chase

Miracles finally ceased for the Dodgers on Saturday. They walloped the San Diego Padres, 14-2, before 33,664 in Dodger Stadium, ending a string of five consecutive one-run nail-biters with a laugher, but they ran out of lifelines.

While the Dodgers pounded 18 hits off the Padres, the San Francisco Giants beat Houston, 5-2, to clinch the National League wild-card berth and eliminate the Dodgers from playoff contention.

The Dodgers won six of their last seven games, thrilling their fans with five victories in their last at-bat, but they were unable to gain ground on a San Francisco team that has won seven in a row and is 28-10 since Aug. 19. The Dodgers have 92 wins entering today’s season finale but will finish in third place.

“There’s an emptiness in here today,” Manager Jim Tracy said. “When you have the potential to win 93 games and you’re still going home, that’s a big pill that is difficult to swallow.... It’s a bittersweet day for me. I hurt for my players, because when you’ve had the year they’ve had, you wish in your heart there was something more for them.”

Most Dodger starters were pulled by the seventh inning Saturday and were watching the clubhouse television when Giant pinch-hitter Tom Goodwin, who drew almost all of his $3.5-million salary from the Dodgers after being released in spring training, slapped a two-out, two-run double in the seventh to push a 3-2 lead to 5-2.

“That was a little tough to swallow,” Dodger first baseman Eric Karros said of Goodwin, who beat the Dodgers with an RBI single in the 11th inning on July 19 and a two-run homer in the ninth on July 21. “The announcers were commenting how he has 14 runs batted in this season, five against us. That’s kind of ironic.”

Said Dodger General Manager Dan Evans: “I looked at the Giants’ celebration, and that’s my motivation for the off-season. We won 92 games, and it wasn’t enough. We have to figure out how to get better.

“Nobody’s real happy around here, but that’s good. When your expectations are elevated to the point where third place is not good enough, that’s a good sign. This hurts, but we’ll build on it.”

Many Dodgers will head home tonight feeling conflicted. By most estimates, the Dodgers exceeded expectations in 2002. A team few thought would challenge for a playoff spot rode a deep and talented rotation, an opportunistic if not overwhelming offense and the reliable relief arms of Eric Gagne and Paul Quantrill to the final weekend of the season before being eliminated.

But how can the Dodgers, with a payroll in excess of $100 million, feel satisfied knowing they led the NL West by 3 1/2 games on July 2, led the wild-card race by 4 1/2 games on Aug. 24 and still didn’t earn their first playoff spot since 1996?

“As players, there’s no question we’re disappointed,” second baseman Mark Grudzielanek said. “A lot of guys aren’t happy with what’s gone on, with how we played. Some will say we improved, but with a club like this, we want to win. With the personnel we have, we should win.”

Some wrote off the Dodgers after they were swept by the combined score of 24-2 in a season-opening series against the Giants, but a rotation led by Hideo Nomo, Odalis Perez, Kazuhisa Ishii and Andy Ashby compensated for an anemic offense during the first two months, and then Shawn Green got hot.

Green smashed 10 homers in seven games from May 21-27, Dodger hitters began to support the pitchers, Gagne put a padlock on the ninth inning--his 52 saves leading to the team’s 33-15 record in one-run games--and the Dodgers surged into first place in late June.

A post-All-Star game funk, in which the Dodgers lost 17 of 25 games, dropped them seven games back in early August.

But they rebounded, winning 20 of 27 from Aug. 7-Sept. 6, and were back in the playoff race.

Then Ishii suffered a fractured skull when he was hit by a line drive on Sept. 8, Kevin Brown was sidelined for the rest of the season because of a back injury, Ashby and Omar Daal went into horrendous pitching slumps, the Dodgers lost 11 of 17 from Sept. 7-24, and the Giants surged past them.

“I don’t know,” Grudzielanek said, when asked when the season got away from the Dodgers. “We can’t let that happen. We hit a rut after the All-Star break, and there were some periods in the second half when we were absolutely terrible.”

There were plenty of highlights: Green’s major league-record four-homer, 19-total-base game in Milwaukee on May 23; Perez’s near-perfect game in Chicago on April 26; Gagne’s emergence as a dominant closer; Dave Roberts’ evolution into a top-notch leadoff batter; Ishii’s 10-1 start; Nomo’s 14-1 record since May 12 and Brian Jordan’s 30 RBIs in September.

There were as many lowlights: Giving up eight runs in the seventh inning of an 8-6 loss to Milwaukee on May 21; Troy O’Leary’s two-run homer off Gagne that gave the Expos a stunning 4-3 win on Aug. 13; three losses in four games at Colorado Sept. 12-15, and Ishii and shortstop Alex Cora being hauled away in ambulances in a span of two weeks in late August and early September.

There are plenty of questions heading into the off-season: Will Brown return to full strength after elbow and back surgery? Will Darren Dreifort ever come back? Will Jordan, who can demand a trade, or free agents Daal and Marquis Grissom, be back? Can the Dodgers deal Grudzielanek and make a run at free-agent slugger Jeff Kent?

But for now, there is only disappointment.

“We didn’t have enough to finish it off,” Grudzielanek said. “San Francisco was definitely the better team, and they proved it.”

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Revisiting the 90s

Seasons--since the franchise moved to Los Angeles--the Dodgers have won 90 or more games and failed to qualify for the postseason (f-finish):

*--* YEAR RECORD W% F MANAGER 2002 *92-69 571 3 Jim Tracy 1991 93-69 574 2 Tom Lasorda 1980 92-71 564 2 Tom Lasorda 1976 92-70 568 2 Walter Alston 1973 95-66 590 2 Walter Alston 1962 102-63 618 2 Walter Alston

*--*

Of note--In 1976, Lasorda managed the final four games; In 1962, the Giants won a three-game playoff; *one game left