Victory in 12th Is a Big Hit With Tracy

By Jason Reid

June 11, 2003 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

DETROIT — Although Manager Jim Tracy usually accentuates the positive, he was in rare form Tuesday night after the Dodgers held off the lowly Detroit Tigers in a 3-1, 12-inning interleague victory at Comerica Park.

“I don’t even want to talk about even a hint of frustration [offensively],” Tracy said after the 3-hour 32-minute game.

“Each and every day you come out here, and you get a chance to reflect on where you’re at offensively, where you would like to be, tomorrow is a new day. You don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow.”

You usually do with the Dodger offense.

An announced crowd of 13,419 watched the major leagues’ worst teams offensively combine for nine hits and two runs through 11 innings, after sitting through a 28-minute rain delay at the start for the privilege.

The Dodgers finally broke through in the 12th with two singles against knuckleballer Steve Sparks -- Alex Cora getting the two-out, two-run hit. Closer Eric Gagne was perfect in the bottom of the inning for his 22nd save in as many chances, capping five scoreless innings for the bullpen, including two from Paul Shuey (3-1), after another strong performance from starter Hideo Nomo.

The second-place Dodgers (35-26) pulled within four games of the San Francisco Giants in the National League West, but how about that offense?

“The bottom line is we won,” Tracy said. “It goes in the left-hand column, and we move on.

“It doesn’t matter who the opponent is. It doesn’t matter where we’re playing.”

It hasn’t for the Dodgers, who have trouble scoring regardless of the opponent and ballpark.

The Tigers (16-45) had a 17-inning marathon in their previous game at Comerica Park -- a 10-9 loss to the New York Yankees that lasted 5 hours 10 minutes.

On Tuesday, Gary Knotts joined the long list of mediocre starters who have befuddled the Dodgers.

The right-hander gave up only three hits and a run in eight innings. And that from a guy who entered with a 4.73 earned-run average, and was chased after only four innings in his last start, setting a career-high with six walks.

The Tigers’ fifth pitcher, Sparks (0-3) entered to start the 12th.

The Dodgers and Tigers failed to score after getting the leadoff batters on in the 10th, and there was no end in sight after Sparks struck out Fred McGriff and got Ron Coomer, the designated hitter in an American League ballpark, to ground out.

But Jolbert Cabrera drew a two-out walk and Adrian Beltre singled to left. The runners moved up on a wild pitch, and Cora then sent the ball into center on a 2-and-1 pitch.

Afterward, a few players acknowledged the obvious.

“What can you say? We’re making it tough on ourselves,” said catcher Paul Lo Duca, who drove in the Dodgers’ first run and extended his career-high hitting streak to 18 games -- the team’s longest since 1996 -- with a single in the third.

“We have chances to score and we’re not having good at-bats. We’re not executing. It’s a broken record, but we just need to do something about it.”