Tapani Makes Dodgers Better by Half : His Clutch Performance Puts L.A. Back in First, 7-4

The Dodgers were supposed to be making a mistake, the critics told them. They were being second-guessed for their decision to start Kevin Tapani in the most critical game of the season so far.

Tapani heard all of it. He knew he deserved to start but never uttered a word. How dare anyone judge his heart.

You want a pressure pitcher? You’re looking at one.

Tapani, making perhaps his last start in a Dodger uniform, might have also led the Dodgers to a playoff berth Wednesday night with a 7-4 victory over the Colorado Rockies in front of a sellout crowd of 53,856 in their regular-season finale at Dodger Stadium.

Tapani, showing no signs of nervousness, pitched six strong innings and lifted the Dodgers back into first place in the National League West, half a game ahead of the Rockies.

Tapani has not dazzled anyone statistically since his trade from Minnesota, posting a 4-2 record and a 5.05 earned-run average, but the Dodgers cringe wondering where they’d be without him. They are 8-3 in his 11 starts.

“Kevin pitched great, now we got fate in our own hands,” said left fielder Roberto Kelly, who had two doubles.

“If we don’t win this thing now, we’ve got no one to blame but ourselves.”

The scenario has become simple:

If the Dodgers (76-65) win their remaining three games against the San Diego Padres, they will clinch at least a tie for the NL West title and play host to the Cincinnati Reds in the first round of the playoffs. The Rockies (75-65) can assure themselves of at least a wild-card berth by winning their final four games against the San Francisco Giants, and would open against the Atlanta Braves.

“We can’t rely on the Giants, not at Coors Field,” said Dodger closer Todd Worrell, who pitched a scoreless ninth inning for his 32nd save. “That team’s pretty banged up. We might as well just do it ourselves.”

The Houston Astros (74-66), who are hoping that one of the two teams has a miserable weekend, play their final four games against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. They are one game behind the Rockies in the wild-card race.

“There’s no pressure,” said Dodger second baseman Delino DeShields, the unsung offensive hero. He went two for three with a double, a sacrifice fly, stole a base and advanced a runner on a groundout to the right side of the infield. “We all know what’s at stake. Either we play well, or we go home.

“Maybe people are right, maybe we should have won this thing already, but the reality is that we’re in it with a chance to win the division.”

Tapani, who helped lead the Twins to the 1991 World Series, made it all possible. The only crucial mistake he made during his outing was a three-run homer to Dante Bichette in the third inning, his 40th home run of the season.

“It was a just a lot of fun to pitch in a game like that,” said Tapani, who will be in the bullpen. “It was important that we won. I don’t care about the individual stuff. Thinking about everything else would have been counterproductive.”

Bichette, who batted .386 on the Rockies’ trip with three homers and 11 RBIs, had his chances to win the game single-handedly. He came up again with two runners aboard in the fifth and seventh innings, but he grounded out in the fifth and flied out in the seventh.

The Dodgers had several opportunities to break the game open in the first three innings but were clinging to a 4-3 lead--Tapani had one of the RBIs--until first baseman Eric Karros took over.

Karros, who was caught looking at a third strike with the bases loaded in the first inning, made amends by hitting a leadoff double in the fifth inning, moving to third on DeShields’ groundout and scoring on Tim Wallach’s sacrifice fly.

In the seventh, there was Karros again, this time hitting a home run into the seats in right-center. DeShields followed with a single, and later scored on another sacrifice fly by Wallach, giving the Dodgers a 7-3 lead and putting the game out of reach.

“Karros is unbelievable,” Kelly said. “People talk about all of these MVP candidates--come on, who gets more clutch hits than this guy? This guy finds a way to get them when we need them.

“He reminds me of Donnie [Mattingly] when I played with the Yankees, it’s unbelievable.”

So, here they are, 141 games down, three to go.

The way the Dodgers figure it, sweep the Padres, and they’re playing Cincinnati in the first round of the playoffs. Win two out of three, and they’re probably still in the playoffs.

Their only worry now is making sure someone packs the champagne for their journey to San Diego.

* ROCKY REASONING: Slugger Dante Bichette has had an MVP-type year, though there are skeptics. C9