Dodgers Have the Run of the Place

Are the Dodgers out of the running for a postseason berth?

Probably, but they can keep their faint hopes alive if they keep running the way they did Tuesday night at Dodger Stadium where they beat the Montreal Expos, 4-3, winning the game with their feet.

Of course, their chances would be more realistic if they could keep playing the Expos, who have long since run out of hope of making the playoffs.

The Dodgers scored one run by outrunning the third out. They scored another by outrunning two apparent rally-killing throws. And they stole five bases.

It was a night when the crowd of 30,183 cheered the scoreboard operator after he belatedly discovered he’d missed a run, and booed Dodger third baseman Bobby Bonilla after he forgot to run, the Dodgers’ only baserunning blunder of the evening.

Montreal’s Vladimir Guerrero opened the scoring in a conventional manner with his 32nd home run, hitting Dave Mlicki’s first pitch of the fourth inning.

Then, things got crazy.

With Bonilla at third, Charles Johnson at second and two out in the fifth inning, Eric Young hit a bouncer to Scott Livingstone at third. Bonilla, going with two out, headed for home. Livingstone, figuring he was not going to get the fleet Young at first, saw Johnson heading his way from second and tagged him out.

But by the time Livingstone had done so, Bonilla already had crossed the plate to tie the score.

As the players trotted off the field, the scoreboard still showed a zero for the Dodger fifth. When it was replaced with a 1, the crowd erupted in cheers.

In the sixth, Trenidad Hubbard singled to right. When Raul Mondesi flied to left, Hubbard took off for second. The throw by left fielder F.P. Santangelo was there in time, but arrived a little wide of the bag. Second baseman Wilton Guerrero was unable to scoop up the ball and make the sweeping tag.

Perhaps feeling lucky, Hubbard took off for third with Gary Sheffield at bat. Catcher Bob Henley’s throw was there in plenty of time, but third baseman Livingstone missed the tag as Hubbard, for the second time, stayed alive.

He then scored easily on a sacrifice fly to center by Eric Karros.

Now it was Sheffield’s turn to stretch his legs. He stole second in and scored on a single to left by shortstop Mark Grudzielanek.

The Dodgers would have had yet another run in the inning if Bonilla, who had walked, had been moving on a pitch Johnson hit into short right field. With two out, Bonilla certainly should have been moving.

Instead, he stood gazing on the basepaths as Wilton and Vladimir Guerrero headed for a potentially dangerous family reunion in short right, the ball dropping in when Wilton failed to reach it.

Bonilla, however, could only go to third, causing the crowd to resume the chorus of boos they had showered down on him in the last homestand. That time, the source of their anger was his questionable play in left field.

Bonilla was left at third when Mlicki struck out.

“[Bonilla] came up and apologized,” Dodger Manager Glenn Hoffman said. “He made a mistake by not knowing how many outs there were.”

Given a chance to get back in the game, the Expos scored a run in the seventh on an RBI single by Wilton Guerrero, who had four hits in five at-bats in his first return to Dodger Stadium since being traded to Montreal on July 31.

But the Dodgers were back on the basepaths looking for another run in their half of the seventh.

They got it after Young doubled and moved to third on a sacrifice. Shayne Bennett made it easy for Young, throwing a wild pitch that allowed Young to come racing home with what proved to be the winning run.

“We were aggressive on the bases,” Hoffman said, “and got some runners in scoring position to manufacture some runs.”

After Vladimir Guerrero and Brad Fullmer hit back-to-back singles in the eighth, Henley brought home Montreal’s final run with a sacrifice fly.

But Jeff Shaw came on in the ninth to record his 38th save, enabling Mlicki, the starter to improve to 7-6.

Mlicki was hit in the lower back by a Vladimir Guerrero comebacker in the sixth, but lasted another inning.

“It’s pretty stiff,” Mlicki said. “I just tried to stay in as long as I could.

“It was a good win. I think everybody’s real positive and I’m not giving up.”