Park and Dodgers Break Through

ST. LOUIS —  He worked with confidence and purpose in eight breakthrough innings, fulfilling his potential with each focused pitch.

Then the Dodgers rewarded Chan Ho Park after the finest outing of his career Saturday night--rallying for a 3-1 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium.

Park (4-3) struck out a career-high 12 batters and gave up only three hits while taking his performance to a new level before a sellout crowd of 48,372. The only run against him came on Fernando Vina’s first-inning leadoff home run, which TV replays showed should have been ruled otherwise because the ball landed in an area in play.

Mark Grudzielanek’s two-out, two-run, ninth-inning double off closer Dave Veres was the game’s biggest hit, and what ensued capped another bad night for the struggling Cardinals.

Left fielder Ray Lankford slipped and inadvertently threw the ball into the stands while trying to get it to a cutoff man. The play should make blooper tapes, but wasn’t funny to the Cardinals, who have lost three in a row to fall out of the lead in the National League Central and wasted rookie Rick Ankiel’s strong seven-inning outing.

Watching Park was difficult, too.

“I’ve never seen him throw like that--never,” said Lankford, who struck out three times facing Park. “I’ve never seen his ball move like that. You saw it, you swung at it and then the ball just dropped. It was just his night.”

With the score tied, 1-1, in the eighth, Park made a stand. He struck out Jim Edmonds swinging with runners at the corners to end the inning, then pumped his fists and screamed.

“He was getting pumped,” said backup catcher Chad Kreuter, who handled Park well again and scored the go-ahead run in the ninth after Veres (0-1) walked him to open the inning.

“That’s what we need out of Chan Ho. We need Chan Ho to be emotional out there and throw the way he did today.”

Park mixed sharp curveballs and changeups with an overpowering fastball in the Dodgers’ second outstanding start in as many days.

Darren Dreifort tossed a two-hitter while controlling the powerful lineup in the series opener. The Dodgers said Park was almost as good as Dreifort, though Park needed help from the beleaguered bullpen.

Struggling closer Jeff Shaw provided a boost for himself and the team, pitching a perfect ninth to nail down the victory. Shaw struck out Mark McGwire looking and earned his eighth save.

The Dodgers were pleased for many reasons--but Park’s performance topped the list.

“I was looking at that game and thinking, ‘We got ourselves one hell of a pitcher,’ ” Manager Davey Johnson said. “Chan Ho was using all of his pitches. He had a great breaking ball and changeup.

“Win or lose, this is what we’ve been looking for. Then we hung in there and got him the win, which is only right. I was enthralled watching it. Dreifort pitched a great game last night, but this was just as good.”

Pitching coach Claude Osteen agreed.

“It was a great thing to watch, it was beautiful,” Osteen said. “You could just see his confidence coming along with every pitch.”

Park had lost his last two decisions and was coming off his worst performance of the season Monday in the Arizona Diamondbacks’ 15-7 victory. He gave up nine hits and eight earned runs, making Saturday’s performance even more surprising.

“I can’t think about negative things in the past,” said Park, who twice had struck out 11 batters. “I just stayed positive today, and I kept believing.”

The Dodgers did, too, especially after Grudzielanek’s timely hit and Lankford’s problems in the left-field corner.

“I’ve never seen a play where the outfielder throws the ball in the stands,” Johnson said. “I’ve never seen that.”

Neither had Lankford.

“My back leg just slipped from under me,” Lankford said. “That’s just the way it has been going.”