The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • D3

SUNDAY, AUGUST 13, 2017 D3 LATIMES.COMSPORTS BASEBALL gosAnflrics (Hmcs Angels are sitting pretty after victory Dodgers results are seen in new context MARKLENNIHAN Associated Press fice fly scored Pujols for a three-run lead. Seattle's bullpen has allowed 13 runs in the first three games of the series. The Angels have won five straight and moved into the second wild card spot in the American League. A solid Ramirez start was quickly undone by the bullpen. Lawrence gave up a one-out single to C.J.

Cron and Valbuena's homer tied the game 3-3, followed by Zy-ch's issues in the eighth. While Seattle's bullpen has struggled, the Angels' relievers have been solid. Starter JC Ramirez was done after five innings following Kyle Seager's home run that gave Seattle a 3-1 lead. Jesse Chavez allowed four hits in 12A innings but was not scored on, helped by two Mariners getting caught stealing and a perfect relay to get Yonder Alonso trying to score from first on a double in the seventh. Cano was stranded at third as Keynan Middleton (4-0) got Nelson Cruz to ground out to end the inning.

Blake Parker worked the eighth and Cam Bedrosian pitched the ninth for his fifth save. BRIAN HOLTON hugs manager Tommy Lasorda as pitching coach Ron Perra-noski, left, looks on after holding off the New York Mets in 1988 playoff game. Clinging to the past They move into 2nd wild-card spot after rallying past Seattle for 5th straight win. ASSOCIATED PRESS SEATTLE Luis Val-buena's two-run homer in the seventh inning pulled Los Angeles even, Albert Pujols added a two-run double in the eighth and the Angels rallied for a 6-3 victory over the Seattle Mariners on Saturday night. For the third straight game, the Mariners saw their bullpen problems fester while trying to hold a lead.

Valbuena's homer came off reliever Casey Lawrence and after the Mariners got six surprisingly strong innings out of starter Erasmo Ramirez. Tony Zych (5-3) ran into even more trouble in the eighth. Zych walked the first two batters before giving up Pujols' double to the gap. Kole Calhoun singled and Andrelton Simmons' sacri DODGERS REPORT Gonzalez won't play every day Dodgers, from Dl ber nightmares. The Cardinals eliminated the Dodgers from the playoffs in 2013 and 2014, remembered in part for the home runs Matt Adams and Matt Carpenter hit against Clayton Kershaw, and for Joe Kelly neutralizing Hanley Ramirez by breaking his rib with a fastball.

At Dodger Stadium, the opponents were the San Diego Padres, who are playing for October of 2019. The pesky Padres were trying to become the first team to win a series from the Dodgers since the powerful Nationals, way back in the first week of June. Not so fast, Padres. Maybe Sunday. On Saturday, the Padres had a two-run lead after five innings.

The Dodgers scored five runs in the next three innings, and that made for a 6-3 victory. And, in an impressive footnote, the Dodgers clinched a winning record with 46 games to play. In the seventh, Cody Bellinger hit his 34th home run, one shy of Mike Piazza's Dodgers rookie record. Bellinger ranks third in the majors in homers, behind Gian-carlo Stanton of Miami (41) and Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees (35). In the eighth, Chris Taylor hit a home run, his 17th.

Kenley Jansen worked a scoreless ninth for his third save in four days and 31st this season. The Padres tooka 3-1 lead into the sixth, when they took out starter Jhoulys Chacin, who had dodged trouble through the first five innings. The Padres first tried left-hander Jose Torres, who gave up a walk to Yasmani Grandal and a double to Chase Utley. They tried right-hander Craig Stam-men and Yasiel Puig forced him to throw nine pitches and worked the walk to load the bases with none out. Austin Barnes pinch-hit and popped out and Taylor struck out, but Corey Seager hit a full-count single into right field.

Grandal and Utley scored, tying the score. The Padres trapped Seager in a rundown between first base and second, then threw home trying to prevent Puig from scoring. The throw was bad, Puig was safe, and the Dodgers led 4-3. As the Dodgers prepare for October, one of the story lines will be how the team sets up its pitching for the postseason. If Kershaw returns as expected, the Dodgers figure to use him, Yu Darvish, Rich Hill and Alex Wood in the playoff rotation.

But Hyun-Jin Ryu and Kenta Maeda still could earn a spot, and both have pitched well lately. Ryu entered Saturday's game with a streak of 15 scoreless innings in a row, and a ERA of 0.95 since the All-Star break. But he needed needed 108 pitches to last five innings against San Diego. He extended his streak of consecutive scoreless innings to 17, but the Padres scored one run in each of the next three innings. Ryu gave up seven hits, including a home run to Wil Myers, and three walks in five innings.

bill.shaikinlatimes.com Twitter: BillShaikin fi it, keeps it in a plastic laundry bag with his stained cap, pulls it out sometimes, says it still smells like musty champagne. But after becoming addicted to alcohol and pain medication, he lost everything else. He pawned his World Series ring to stay out of bankruptcy. His marriage ended in divorce. He spent time in a Wisconsin jail when he didn't make child-support payments for his two daughters.

He entered a substance-abuse program. He lived in a homeless shelter. He says he tried to make life work. He unloaded trucks. He worked in a mailroom.

He ran a country store. He managed a discount variety store. He sold mulch. None of it could compare to working at Chavez Ravine. "It still seems like yesterday when I was coming into the game, I can still almost smell the pine tar in my glove," he said, pausing, laughing.

"Yeah, I used pine tar. What can they do to me now?" He spent a lot of his time in a drug and alcohol haze, battling demons that still confront him today. "I was depressed, drinking a lot, taking pain pills, didn't care about anything, my life turned into crap," he said. "I kept thinking, there has to be more to life than this. A lot of times I went to sleep thinking, if I don't wake up, e'est la vie." He now lives in suburban Milwaukee in the home of longtime friend Kathlene Wells, who is helping him recover from two knee replacements in recent months.

He has no job. He is living off savings and a major league pension. He believes his life is turning around. He knows it is a daily struggle. "He wants to be back in the past, when he was a great baseball star, but that's back there, that's not here now," Wells said.

"He hit the big time, then he had it taken away. I just hope he's on the way back." He is planning on it. He has a souvenir Dodgers cap that he wears when he watches their games. He plans on watching all of their postseason games, cheering like a kid, cheering not just for today, but for their tomorrows. "Just like them, probably, I couldn't imagine in my wildest dreams I would have a season like I had," he said.

"Slow it down. Keep it. It's magic. And then it's gone." bill.plaschkelatimes.com Twitter: BillPlaschke Plaschke, from Dl surgery is going to turn out just You remember Kirk Gibson's home run. But do you remember Brian Holton holding the Oakland Athletics hitless for two innings to help set up Gibson's blast? "He was a guy who nobody had really counted on, yet a guy who helped deliver a world championship," said Fred Claire, the Dodgers general manager at the time.

You remember Mike Scioscia's home run. But do you remember Holton pitching out of a runner-on-third-none-out jam against those New York Mets to set up Scioscia's drive? "He had big outs in big moments in close games, a vital part of our team," Orel Hershiser said. For the last Dodgers World Series championship, in 1988, Holton was their suffocating middle reliever, their Andrew Miller, the best WAR in the bullpen, the best year of his life. In 45 appearances, he was 7-3 with a 1.70 ERA, ending the season with a 172A-inning scoreless streak. But he pitched during a time when middle relievers were anonymous.

He was lost in the glory of Gibby and Bulldog and even closer Jay Howell, even though Holton earned the save against the Mets in Game 5 of the National League Championship Series while Howell was serving a suspension for pine tar. "I was kind of overshadowed," said Holton, 57. "They always talk about the stars from that season, and rightfully so, but I'm like, 'Hey, I also had a pretty good Today, he would have been one of those stars. But in 1988, he was little more than an oddity, a charmed Dodgers lifer who, at 28, finally struck gold in his 11th year in the organization. Then when it was over, it was over.

Barely a month after the championship parade, Holton was traded to the Baltimore Orioles with Juan Bell and Ken Howell for Eddie Murray. "When I was told about the trade, I cursed and slammed down the phone because I thought it was a joke," Holton said. "It hurt. We had just won a World Series, and I wanted to get my ring at Dodger Stadium, but instead I got it in the mail from Federal Express." It was a blow from which he never emotionally recovered. In two years with the Orioles he was 7-10 with a 4.18 ERA, and he never pitched in the big leagues again.

He returned to the Dodgers for two minor league seasons, but was never recalled and retired at 32 with a great sense of loss. "I knew I would miss the game," he said. "I didn't realize how much I would miss the game." He missed it so much he got lost in a dizzying array of personal afflictions and setbacks, and eventually fell off the grid. The Dodgers couldn't find him. When tracking down the 1988 team for anniversary columns a couple of years ago, I found every former player but him.

When he was found, Claire was so surprised that he taped a message to play for Holton during our interview. "Hey Brian, Fred Claire the Dodgers, will never forget, ever, what you meant to the last world championship. You were huge, you were absolutely huge. I know what you did, and how many times you did it, in a role that got so overlooked." Holton heard the message in that hospital bed in Wisconsin and his voice thickened. "Holy cow, that was really Fred Claire, that gave me the goose bumps," he said.

"Best year of my life." Holton decided to finally talk about his life because, with this year's Dodgers seemingly on an unstoppable ourney toward their first World Series championship since 1988, he wanted to give his potential successors some advice. "I want tell them to slow it down, step back, try to enjoy every moment," he said. "Because it goes by so damn quick." One minute Holton was running out of the Dodgers bullpen and past left fielder Gibson, who greeted each of his home appearances with the same warning. "Gibby would shout to me, 'Don't screw this he said. "With that kind of intimidation, how could I screw it up?" The next minute he was dancing in Oakland, parading through downtown Los Angeles, appearing on "The Gong Show." "I remember thinking, So this is what it's like to win a World he said.

"Today I'm like, 'Holy cow, I was actually And then he wasn't. "I kept chasing that feeling from 1988, but I just never got it back," he said. "I was living my dream, then it came down to the other part of my life, the reality part, and it wasn't real good." He saved his Dodgers uniform, never even washed Hill checks out fine Rich Hill said he was sore but otherwise fine Saturday, one day after being hit in the neck with a pitch while batting. He remained in Friday's game after athletic trainers confirmed that he still could breathe and speak comfortably, and precautionary postgame testing at a hospital did not reveal any injury. "It's obviously scary when a ball comes up in that area," Hill said.

"I'm just thankful that everything was fine." Hill completed his usual workout Saturday and said he expected to take his next turn in the Dodgers' rotation. He said he had no trepidation about watching the replay a couple times. Hatcher back Roberts said the Dodgers would activate reliever Chris Hatcher on Sunday. The Dodgers have six right-handed relievers Kenley Jansen, Pedro Baez, Brandon Morrow, Josh Fields, Ross Stripling and Brock Stewart who have pitched at least 20 innings and performed significantly better than the league average. The Dodgers ran out of room for Stewart and sent him back to the minor leagues Friday.

So why activate Hatcher, who has a 4.66 earned-run average this season and has not pitched better than league average since 2015? "Chris has been there from the beginning," Roberts said. "He's a part of what we're doing. As he is healthy, we believe that you've got to give him an opportunity. For us, it's day to day. We've got to assess each day and see where it takes us." bill.shaikinlatimes.com Twitter: BillShaikin By Bill Shaikin Adrian Gonzalez was 23 when the San Diego Padres made him their everyday first baseman.

That was in 2006, and he never missed more than six games in a season from that season until this one. He is 35 now. This season included his first career trip to the disabled list, and then his second. He is about to return, but the Dodgers will not use him as an everyday player. "Where he's at in his career, he understands that," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Saturday.

Gonzalez has spent the past nine weeks on the disabled list, primarily to strengthen the muscles surrounding the herniated disk in his back. Roberts said Gonzalez is expected to complete a minor league rehabilitation assignment Wednesday, fly with the Dodgers to Detroit on Thursday, and be activated at some point on the seven-game trip. Roberts said Gonzalez would be "playing his share against right-handed pitching." In that scenario, Gonzalez could play first base, moving Cody Bellinger to left field and Chris Taylor to second base. Roberts said Taylor could play center field to give Joe Pederson a day off. Roberts also said Taylor (previously a utility player) and Bellinger (a rookie) could benefit from time off during these dog days of the season.

Gonzalez, a five-time All-Star, is batting .255 with one home run. He is batting .237 off left-handers, with one extra-base hit a double in 38 at-bats. Roberts said he has discussed the reduced role with Gonzalez. TlAHTHVJkJLHaVJV tlUltlMMmlMj3m KSESa YU darvish'S lHHHuHIv liHlllllllljfHrES scheduled rH.