Dodgers Dazzled by Wizardry

Although they have lost many games whose descriptions belonged in comic strips, the Dodgers outdid themselves Saturday with a defeat fit for the supermarket tabloids.

An entire team was felled by a flying shortstop.

Just as the Dodgers’ tying run crossed the plate in the sixth inning, that run was nullified when Ozzie Smith floated over Lenny Harris to compete an inning-ending double play.

The St. Louis Cardinals held on to a 3-2 victory while the Dodgers were left with a story that few will believe.

“How did he get out of my way? I was right on top of him!” Harris said. “He just flew away like a bird!”

Cardinal Manager Joe Torre corroborated the sighting.

“Ozzie just disappeared,” he said. “It was a Superman play.”

Before 39,479 at Busch Stadium, the Dodgers had cut into a 3-1 deficit with a sixth-inning run on Harris’ run-scoring single, putting Harris on first base and Henry Rodriguez on third base with one out.

Harris was not being held close to the base, so he took a big lead when Mike Scioscia hit a slow grounder to second base.

Luis Alicea fielded and flipped to Smith, who grabbed it and touched the base as Harris was sliding into him. But the two players never even bumped.

Smith leaped over Harris with his entire body, made the throw to first base in mid-air, then landed gently on both feet.

The play ended with Harris spiking his helmet while Smith jogged from the field with a grin.

“I told him, ‘How in the hell did you ever get out of my way?’ ” Harris said. “He said, ‘Son, you were on the third floor and I went up to the sixth floor.’ ”

Smith, a potential free agent who has undergone an emotional season because he feels the Cardinals do not want him back, wore a peaceful expression when talking about the play.

“It was just one of those kind of plays that kind of happens,” he said. “I can never tell you what I’m going to do, I just do it. That makes the game fun.”

Some experts were guessing that Smith, who weighs only 168 pounds, has not been hit hard at second base since 1982, during an incident that he recalls in detail.

“Terry Whitfield got me good . . . I missed some games,” he said. “Since then, it’s been a matter of survival.”

Harris still wonders if it wasn’t a matter of unusual assistance.

“Maybe there is a trampoline under that bag,” Harris said.

Contrasting Smith’s play for baseball’s best fielding team, the Cardinals scored their second and third runs on a wild throw by baseball’s worst fielding team.

For the 35th time this season, the Dodgers committed more than one error in a game. This time the lowlight was Eric Young’s wild relay throw home from second base on Ray Lankford’s double with runners on first and second against Kevin Gross in the fifth.

A good throw would have caught Smith, who was attempting to score the second run. Instead, the ball sailed up the third base line and into the Dodgers dugout, allowing both Smith and Lankford to score.

Cardinal reliever Lee Smith ended the game after an un-Ozzie-like play.

With bases loaded, Smith struck out Todd Benzinger to collect his 35th save despite, moments earlier, allowing Mitch Webster to reach first on an easy grounder to first base.

With runners on first and second after walks, the reliever did not cover first base in time to catch Andres Galarraga’s throw and beat Webster to the base.

“Everyone in the league knows I ain’t too fleet of foot,” Smith said.

ANGELS DEFEAT RED SOX: Mark Langston and Joe Grahe combine on a four-hitter in a 7-2 victory over the Boston Red Sox. C8