DODGERS DON'T TAKE THE ISHII WAY OUT TRACY RELIES ON BULLPEN TO CLINCH WIN DODGERS 5, MILWAUKEE 3.

Byline: Tony Jackson  Staff Writer

MILWAUKEE - In each of his two previous starts, Kazuhisa Ishii had walked enough batters to cost the Dodgers any chance of winning. On Tuesday night, he walked only enough batters to cost himself any chance of winning.

This time, he didn't cost the Dodgers anything. Despite another early exit by Ishii - or perhaps because of it - they held on for a 5-3 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers in front of 16,129.

With two outs in the bottom of the fifth, the Dodgers leading by two and Ishii needing to retire one more batter to qualify for the victory, manager Jim Tracy popped out of the dugout and signaled to the bullpen. At a time when his club had dropped nine of its previous 10 games, Tracy felt the need to be more pragmatic than empathetic. He also felt that by denying Ishii the victory, he was denying him a chance to blow the game.

Ishii had issued five unintentional walks, running his total for his past four starts to 22 in 21 2/3 innings. His final one had gone to Junior Spivey with one out in the fifth. Spivey later scored on Brady Clark's two-out single, slicing the Dodgers' lead to 4-2 and bringing Tracy to the mound.

Despite walking the first batter he faced, Jose Lima pitched out of the jam with no further damage, gave up an unearned run in the sixth and ultimately was credited with the victory by discretion of the official scorer. Guillermo Mota and Eric Gagne took care of the final three innings, finishing off the Dodgers' second victory since May 12.

To his credit, Ishii blamed only himself for the early hook. He left with runners on first and third and with Brewers third baseman Keith Ginter, who already had doubled off him twice, due up. Ishii had thrown 100 pitches, a staggering figure for such an early juncture in the game.

``I think that was the right decision for me at that time,'' said Ishii, speaking through an interpreter.

``I just think I have to become a pitcher (Tracy) can rely on. I have to keep improving so I can earn his trust. I don't think he has lost trust in me, but I just think as a pitcher, naturally, you would like to throw longer in the game. If you perform well, you will be able to stay in the game longer.''

Tracy stressed that the move was not a punishment, nor was it meant to send any kind of subtle message to Ishii, who before running into his current control problems was arguably the Dodgers' most reliable starter.

``We did everything we could to try to get Kazuhisa through,'' Tracy said.

``It's not something you like to do, but with the at-bats Keith Ginter had already had, and with the way things have been going for us offensively, we couldn't run the risk of taking another bullet and falling behind in this game. The object for us right now is to win baseball games.''

The Dodgers (24-19) had scored a total of 19 runs in those nine losses, and there was a sense whenever they would fall behind by even a run or two that they were done for that particular evening.

But they never trailed in this game and remained tied with San Diego atop the National League West - for the seventh consecutive day - after the Padres won at Colorado.

Lima (3-1), who was available out of the bullpen for the last time this week because he is scheduled to start Saturday's game against Arizona, walked Ginter to load the bases. Gary Bennett followed with what looked like a two-run single to right, but Dodgers second baseman Alex Cora dived far to his left to stop it. Cora scrambled to his feet in plenty of time to get Bennett at first, probably saving the game for the Dodgers.

Tony Jackson,[phone]

tony.jackson(at)dailynews.com

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(color) Shawn Green and Juan Encarnacion congratulate each other after the Dodgers' 5-3 victory in Milwaukee on Tuesday.

Morry Gash/Associated Press

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