Dodgers Give One Away, 6-5 : Baseball: After coming back in eighth, they lose to Cardinals in ninth with shoddy fielding, pitching.

ST. LOUIS — The magic that surrounded the patchwork Dodgers for the past week appeared again in the eighth inning Monday.

Then, as if in some dark fable, it turned on them.

Their hands became stone, their feet became ice and a potential comeback victory became a devastating, 6-5 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals before 40,837 at Busch Stadium.

The winning run scored with two out in the ninth inning on a hard ground-ball single by Felix Jose that second baseman Lenny Harris knocked down before falling.

His throw was high and late. Jose crossed first base with his arms outspread in a display of joy that could have been amazement.

“In these situations, we have got to win,” Dodger rookie first baseman Eric Karros said, shaking his head. “We don’t have a lot of room to be making mistakes. This is not the kind of team that can be saying, ‘No big deal, we’ll pick up games in June and July.’ ”

The Dodgers went ahead, 5-3, when Todd Benzinger won a 10-pitch battle with reliever Lee Smith to drive in three runs with an eighth-inning triple.

They charged out of the dugout with fists raised. It was going to be their sixth comeback victory in eight games.

Moments later, beginning with two out in the bottom of the eighth inning, the Dodgers’ touch disappeared.

During a nine-batter sequence that stretched into the ninth inning, Mike Sharperson committed his first error of the season at third base, Jay Howell threw a wild pitch and Lenny Harris and Karros miscommunicated on a grounder.

The Dodgers have committed 40 errors, highest in the National League. The Cardinals have committed 22 errors, equaling the lowest total. Guess which team has won all three games between them this season.

For the Cardinals, who are leading the National League East this far into the season for the first time in five years, it was a typical afternoon.

They won in their final at-bat for the 12th time in 26 victories, and have 15 come-from-behind victories.

The Dodgers are 2-11 in one-run games; the Cardinals are 12-6.

Benzinger believed this day would be different when he followed a bunt single by Brett Butler, a line single by Sharperson and a grounder by Mitch Webster with a triple in the eighth inning.

Benzinger believed it was won when Roger McDowell retired the first two batters in the eighth without a ball leaving the infield.

“Now we have Andres Galarraga coming up and, because he just got off the disabled list, he’s not hitting well . . . and we all figure the inning is over and we just have three outs to go,” Benzinger said.

But Galarraga singled to center. Then Todd Zeile hit a bouncer that ticked off the glove of charging Sharperson for an error.

“It was a do-or-die play. If I sit back, he beats it out for sure,” said Sharperson, who had a league-high 58-game errorless streak at third base last year.

Bernard Gilkey, a late-inning defensive replacement, then lined a ball past third base and down the left-field line for a two-run double, tying the score, 5-5. Gilkey had only three runs batted in before the game.

After a potential go-ahead double by Karros was stolen on a running catch by Ray Lankford in center field in the top the ninth inning, Luis Alicea started the bottom of the inning with achopper to the right of first base.

Karros moved to make the catch, but then he said he heard Harris call for the ball. Harris stepped in front of Karros and grabbed it but had no time to make the throw.

“One of those ‘I got it, you got it’ kind of plays,” Harris said.

Alicea moved to second on a fly ball by Gerald Perry against reliever John Candelaria, who then struck out Lankford.

But instead of leaving in the left-handed Candelaria to face Ozzie Smith, who bats .222 against left-handers and .348 against right-handers, Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda decided to bring in right-handed Jay Howell to intentionally walk Smith.

This would bring up Felix Jose, who had a 10-game hitting streak. But Lasorda said he thought Jose was a better risk than Smith.

“Ozzie is a contact hitter. . . . We felt (Jose) could not hit a curve against Jay,” Lasorda said.

Howell bounced a curveball past catcher Carlos Hernandez for a wild pitch, moving the runners to second and third.

Alicea then scored easily when Jose’s hard grounder was knocked down by Harris, who fell as he tried to grab the ball out of his glove and throw it. The play was originally ruled an error, then changed to a hit.

“I never could have caught that ball. I barely got in front of it,” Harris said.

Afterward Lasorda, in a rare change of subject, talked about his opponent.

“The Cardinals are a good club, they run good, they make contact, they hit the ball to all fields . . . and they catch the ball,” he said.