DRAWING FIRST BLOOD A WILD (PITCH) WIN EVENS UP NL WEST RACE DODGERS 4, SAN FRANCISCO 3.

Byline: TONY JACKSON  Staff Writer

SAN FRANCISCO -- At first glance, it looked like another inexplicable strategic move Dodgers manager Grady Little might spend years living down. At last glance, it looked like a moment Dodgers fans will spend years reliving.

And in the end, it proved to be the defining moment in the Dodgers' latest dance with destiny, a 4-3 victory over the San Francisco Giants in front of a sellout crowd of 42,587 on Friday night at AT&T Park that put them into a first-place tie with San Diego atop the National League West and in a position to clinch a playoff spot if the they can beat the Giants again this afternoon.

With the Dodgers trailing by a run in the ninth inning of their most important game of the season to date, Little sent Olmedo Saenz to hit for Marlon Anderson. This, despite the fact Saenz had one career hit in seven previous at-bats against Giants closer Mike Stanton, who happened to be standing on the mound. This despite the fact Anderson was the hottest hitter in the Dodgers' lineup, having gone 1 for 3in the game and 7 for 17 on the trip.

But with runners on first and second and one out, Saenz hit a line drive through the right side of the Giants infield. The hit easily scored the speedy Jason Repko from second base to tie the score and set off a wild celebration in the visiting dugout, where most of the Dodgers had spent the entire game not seated on the bench but leaning on the front railing.

After Julio Lugo grounded into a force at second, moving Russell Martin to third, Stanton wild-pitched Martin home with the go-ahead run.

Saenz, the Dodgers' pinch-hitter extraordinaire, later called it the biggest hit of his eight-year career in the majors. It also was the culmination of a difficult year in which he lost his mother to cancer during spring training, and it was his 15th pinch hit of the season.

``We have been through a lot this year, and I have been through a lot personally,'' Saenz said. ``Before that at-bat, I talked to my mom and asked her to give me all the strength she could to get this done. It's not an easy job to come off the bench. She was very, very close to me, and she was always an inspiration for me.

``She pushed me. She was a fighter, and she gave me that.''

Takashi Saito closed it out in the ninth, but it wouldn't be a late-September Dodgers-Giants game without a little more tension at the end.

Singles by Steve Finley and Randy Winn put runners at the corners with one out.

The Dodgers' Ramon Martinez had rejoined the team Thursday after his newborn son finally was released from a Puerto Rico hospital. Martinez also had just entered Friday's game at third base after pinch-hitting in the top of the ninth inning. He might have saved the game when he reached over a railing and into a camera well to snowcone a foul pop by Omar Vizquel for the second out.

``I knew it was going to be close, but I played (for the Giants) four years, and I know balls hit into that area sometimes come back into play,'' Martinez said. ``I was going to give it all I had, and I wasn't going to let it drop.''

Martinez righted himself in time to make sure Finley couldn't tag and score. Although Winn did advance, putting the potential winning run into scoring position, Saito then froze Mark Sweeney to strike him out looking to end the game. It was Saito's 23rd save, extending his Dodgers rookie record.

With that, the Dodgers (86-64) had their fifth consecutive victory and their seventh in their past eight games, all of which have come at the season's most crucial juncture.

``We are riding a high level of emotion right now, with a lot of confidence,'' Little said. ``So many good things happened in that game that we can't even sit here and talk about all of them.

``I'm proud of the way these guys go about it, and I'm proud of the way they never quit.''

The Giants took a 3-0 lead after fiveinnings against Hong-Chih Kuo, who gave up a pair of costly two-out hits to score runs and was victimized by a badly misjudged ball in center by Kenny Lofton.

But J.D. Drew's two-run homer off Noah Lowry in the seventh pulled the Dodgers within a run.

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CAPTION(S):

3 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- color) Dodgers closer Takashi Saito celebrates after getting the final strikeout to save a win over San Francisco.

(2) The Dodgers' Russell Martin, right, is greeted by Rafael Furcal after scoring the go-ahead run on a Mike Stanton wild pitch in the ninth Friday in San Francisco.

Keith Birmingham/Staff Photographer

(3) MADDUX

Box:

DODGERST at SAN FRANCISCO

- Tony Jackson