No Magic, a Smaller Number

The score was tied in the ninth inning of Wednesday night’s game between the Dodgers and Colorado Rockies at Dodger Stadium.

The manager sought relief from the bullpen. He didn’t get it. Instead he watched helplessly as his relievers proved incapable of matching the brilliant effort of his starting pitcher, the tie broken and the game allowed to slip away.

Heard this one before? That same, sorry Rocky bullpen, worst in the major leagues with 33 blown saves, imploding once again?

Not this time.

This time, it was the Dodger bullpen, absent its closer, which collapsed, allowing the Rockies to pull out a 4-1 victory in front of a disappointed crowd of 43,304.

Still, the disappointment was muted by the late score from San Diego, where the Padres beat the San Francisco Giants, 4-3 in 10 innings, leaving the Dodgers’ National League West lead at three games with five to play and reducing the team’s magic number to two. A Dodger victory and Giant defeat tonight would enable the Dodgers to clinch their first division title in nine years.

“It feels good,” third baseman Adrian Beltre said. “One loss by them is as good as a win.”

Said Shawn Green: “I wouldn’t say it feels like a W, but I wouldn’t say it feels like a loss. Obviously it would have been great to win tonight, but we still reduced the magic number.”

The Dodgers had gotten eight solid innings Wednesday from starter Odalis Perez, who gave up one run and four hits, striking out six while walking two.

With closer Eric Gagne out of action because of stiffness in his throwing shoulder, with the Dodgers having used 12 pitchers in the previous two nights, Manager Jim Tracy might have stuck with Perez heading into the ninth inning of a 1-1 deadlock.

Instead, Perez, who had thrown 114 pitches, was removed.

“It was already 114 pitches,” Perez said, “and we are a week away from the playoffs. We have a three-game lead and my shoulder has not been 100% all year.”

Yhency Brazoban retired the first batter in the ninth, then walked Todd Helton and gave up a single to Vinny Castilla.

With left-handed hitting Jeromy Burnitz coming up, Tracy went back to the bullpen, calling on southpaw Mike Venafro. Burnitz lined a single to right, fielded cleanly by Green.

With Helton coming home, Green made a bullet throw to the plate. But catcher Brent Mayne had to go high to reach the throw, allowing Helton to slide by him.

Next up was pinch-hitter Choo Freeman, who hit a ball that Venafro stabbed at, deflecting it into left field, allowing two more runs to score.

It was Perez who first broke through Wednesday against Colorado starter Jeff Francis for the Dodgers’ first hit, a single into right-center in the third. Two outs later, with Perez at second, Steve Finley hit a ball into the hole between first and second. Second baseman Aaron Miles dived, his outstretched glove snaring the ball.

It was a great play, but his wide throw to first allowed Perez to score.

Perez cruised through the first five innings, giving up only two hits while striking out six. Then, with Miles aboard on a single, Perez ran into Helton.

Helton was bidding to become the first major leaguer ever to hit at least .315 with 32 home runs and 95 RBIs in his first seven seasons. With a .345 average coming into Wednesday and only four games left, Helton has an insurmountable cushion for his average. He also has the home-run total.

And in that sixth inning at-bat, he got the final component, slicing a Perez pitch down the left-field line and off the railing to drive in Miles with the tying run for his 95th RBI.

Before the game, there was enough media on the field to make it look like a World Series, mostly drawn by Milton Bradley, who was suspended for five games by Major League Baseball for his emotional outburst on the field the night before.

“We might have won the game if he played tonight,” Perez said of Bradley. “We don’t want any players getting into trouble in September. That’s not a good idea.”