DODGERS WAKE UP; NINTH-INNING RALLY, PIAZZA'S DOUBLE-PLAY BALL STALL METS : DODGERS 7, N.Y. METS 6.

Byline: Brian Dohn Staff Writer

For all the bashing and beating the Dodgers have taken, they will be involved in the playoff race after all.

The Dodgers did a huge favor to Atlanta and Cincinnati by staging an improbable three-run rally to defeat the first-place Mets 7-6 before a sellout crowd Saturday night at Shea Stadium.

Not only did they score three times in the ninth, they turned a double play against former Dodger Mike Piazza to escape a first-and-third, none-out situation to win the game.

It will take more efforts like these to keep the Dodgers from losing 100 games for the first time in 91 years, and just the third overall.

``I'm just glad we're playing tough teams that are in it, so you have to push yourself,'' said Dodgers left fielder Gary Sheffield, whose leadoff homer tied the score at 5-5 in the ninth. ``When you can keep playing teams that are in the race, you can play with the intensity of the playoffs.''

The last time Dodgers losses reached triple digits was 1908, when they were 53-101. That's also the last time the Chicago Cubs won the World Series. The Dodgers lost a franchise-worst 104 games in 1905.

The Dodgers (48-62) would have to go 14-38 to reach an even 100 losses. It seems unlikely the club couldn't post a .269 winning percent in their remaining 52 games, but these are, after all, the Dodgers.

This is the same club that, even with Saturday's win, is involved in a streak in which it has won 5 of its last 18, a .278 winning percentage.

And it isn't as though the Dodgers haven't gone through extended lapses. From May 31 through July 7, the Dodgers went 9-24 (.273).

``We came up big in the end, and that's something we're going to have to do the last couple of months,'' said Dodgers catcher Paul LoDuca, who hit his first major-league homer in the eighth to pull the Dodgers to 5-4.

The playoff race might be just enough to jumpstart the Dodgers. They have six more games left with the Mets, three more with Atlanta, seven with San Francisco and three with Houston.

Without question those games will create more excitement and be played with more intensity than games against Milwaukee, Montreal, Florida and other slackers in the league.

And if there's any question what kind of atmosphere a playoff race can create, just think back a few years to when the Dodgers were respectable. Or look at how it impacted the game with the Mets.

Sheffield homered off Billy Taylor to tie the score, and his former Florida Marlins teammate Craig Counsell eventually drove in two with a double off the right-field wall.

``It's been a while since we came back and won one, but that was fun,'' Counsell said. ``We showed some fight. That's what you want to do. We need to do that.''

The Dodgers also showed moxie in the bottom of the inning when John Olerud singled in Roger Cedeno to make it 7-6 and put runners on with none out. But with the infield playing in, Piazza, who has come under criticism in New York for not producing in the clutch, hit a weak grounder to Jose Vizcaino at short. Vizcaino looked Edgardo Alfonso back to third and then flipped to Counsell to begin the double play.

Pinch-hitter Benny Agbayani grounded to Counsell at second to end the game and give reliever Jeff Shaw his 23rd save.

``I was jacked,'' Shaw said. ``I felt like we were in the playoffs. The place was going crazy.''

CAPTION(S):

Photo

PHOTO Mets catcher Mike Piazza (31) slides safely into home as Dodgers catcher Paul LoDuca waits for the throw. The Dodgers won 7-6.

Osamu Honmda/Associated Press