LIVELY LIMA CONDUCTS REVIVAL.

Byline: BOB KEISSER

Jose Lima didn't just pitch a complete game, five-hit playoff shutout Saturday night at Dodger Stadium.

He performed an exorcism.

The pitcher with his own internal mambo soundtrack put away 16 years of Dodgers post-Gibson angst, frustration and bad playoff mojo with a Kirk-worthy performance that will earn him a permanent place in Dodgers history and hearts of fans. On one enchanted evening, he did more than a fleet of Kevin Browns.

The Dodgers' 4-0 win in Game 3 of the National League Division Series against St. Louis - the team's first postseason win since the last game of the 1988 World Series - felt more like a revival than a baseball game, and considering the Dodgers were down 2-0 in the series, revival is what they needed.

As Lima walked down the third-base line at 4:45 p.m. to take his warmup pitches in the bullpen, the 55,992 fans in the stands along the foul line rose and started chanting his name: ``Li-ma! Li-ma! Li-ma!''

When his name was mentioned in the introductions, the cheer was as loud as that for Eric Gagne. His mound habits from start to finish was a symphony of gestures more dramatic than anything you'll see at the local multiplex.

He looked upward to the heavens dozens of times. He would wipe his face with the panache of Luciano Pavarotti singing ``Nessun Dorma'' from the opera Turandot. He reacted to every good play in the field and soft ground ball by the Cardinals as if he was the fan. When Adrian Beltre made a highlight-worthy play on a Scott Rolen nubber to start the seventh, Lima walked off the mound to high-five his third-baseman.

And throughout, he maintained a constant conversation with, well, himself, his glove and whatever divine inspiration he took with him to the mound. It was a better one-man show than anything you've seen on a stage.

Each inning built on the one before it, too. Each time he marched to the dugout having kept the Cardinals scoreless, Lima's arm-pumps became more intense and the fans grew more hysterical, and it was hard to tell who was feeding off who.

At the end of the eighth inning, with 99 pitches in the bank and Gagne warm and ready, Lima popped out of the dugout for a fan curtain call. So you can imagine the din that erupted when Lima ran back out to the mound for a ninth inning encore.

``I didn't know whether to cry or jump into the stands,'' Lima said in the postgame tumult. ``I've been playing in the majors for 11 years, and pitched in some big games, but tonight this place was going nuts. I've never seen a park vibrate before.

``From the fifth inning on, the fans were chanting my name, so much that I had to tell myself `stop, stop' listening. It was unbelievable, so much energy.''

It was without any debate the biggest game of Lima's career, the Dodgers' biggest win since 1988, and the best pitching performance of the 2004 postseason, which is saying a lot when Curt Schilling, Pedro Martinez, Bartolo Colon, Johan Santana and Roger Clemens are among the starting pitchers.

All five hits Lima allowed were singles. Larry Walker, Albert Pujols and Scott Rolen went a combined 0-for-12 and didn't hit a single pitch with authority. The Cardinals got one runner to third, Tony Womack in the first. Lima, who had just one shutout in his career before Saturday, retired the side in order four times.

``After we got a lead, I kept talking to my glove. ... `Get the first hitter out, get the first hitter out, keep guys off base,' '' Lima said.

Lima's pitch count per inning was a thing of beauty. After 20 pitches in the first, he made 12, 5, 6, 15, 14, 12, 15 and 10 pitches the next eight.

``To keep putting zeros up against that (Cardinals) lineup is a pretty incredible feat,'' outfielder Shawn Green said.

``I don't know if you can do it much better,'' Jim Tracy said. ``When you have 25- or 30-pitch innings, you never get them back. That's why Jose was still out there in the seventh, eighth and ninth.''

The Dodgers manager admitted he extended Lima Time into the ninth to milk the situation. He thought Lima's tank might have been empty, but he had a four-run lead and liked the way he had pitched all game to Pujols, who led off the ninth.

Hey, it wasn't that surprising. The fans have been waiting 16 years for something to cheer. On this Saturday night, Lima Time meant turning the calendar back to 1988.