Dodgers Fall to Phillies in 20th, 7-6 : Baseball: After Los Angeles takes lead in top of inning, Philadelphia scores two runs on Dykstra’s ground-rule double.

PHILADELPHIA —  Everybody seemed to be looking for some type of relief Wednesday night. The crowd of 41,730 at Veterans Stadium--who sat through the longest game in baseball this season in sweltering heat--was looking for a breeze.

Downtown, where attempts to cool down from this three-day heat wave caused a blackout in portions of the city, people were looking for a light.

And the Dodgers and Phillies?

They were just looking for a run. And that, took a lot of relief.

With the score tied 5-5 in the 20th inning, Carlos Hernandez scored Jose Offerman from third base on a high chopper to third to give the Dodgers a 6-5 lead, but the Phillies came back with two runs in the bottom of the 20th on Lenny Dykstra’s ground-rule double over the head over Eric Davis in left field to win, 7-6.

Offerman, who had singled off reliever Mike Williams, broke toward the plate when Hernandez made contact, sending a grounder to third baseman Kim Batiste. Batiste throw to catcher Darren Daulton looked on-line, but Batiste couldn’t get his glove on it and Offerman scored.

The Dodgers and Phillies combined to use 14 pitchers, but in the end, it was Williams and Dodger reliever Rod Nichols, scheduled to start the second game of a doubleheader tonight at New York, who were left on the mound.

The Dodgers, down 5-3 had come back to score two runs in the ninth inning against reliever Mitch Williams to tie the score and send the game into the the record book.

The game lasted 6 hours 10 minutes hours, ending at 1:47 a.m. EDT. It was the longest game in both innings and in time in baseball this season. These Phillies, though, can play all night. Forced to complete a rain-delayed doubleheader Friday, they didn’t finish playing until 4:40 a.m.

But the Dodgers have been battling back on the field and off for days. They held on to win 1-0 in the 11th inning in Montreal to win a series there for the first time since 1989. And Wednesday night they played into Thursday morning, trying to win their first series here in Philadelphia since May 3-5, 1991.

This East Coast trip is traditionally a disaster for the Dodgers, but not in the way it has been this time. Usually the Dodgers lose badly, but this time it’s what they have lost off the field that matters. Already emotionally exhausted from the death of Don Drysdale, the Dodgers still have five games to play beginning with a doubleheader today against the New York Mets.

If anything, Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda wanted to conserve his pitchers, and was hoping for a strong outing from Ramon Martinez, who was 5-1 with a 2.39 record in his last eight starts, including three complete games with two shutouts.

But even when Martinez struggled early, there was little Lasorda could do about it anyway. And even when Martinez went seven innings, it didn’t matter. Lasorda ended up using his entire bullpen anyway.

To complicate it, Martinez goes before National League President Bill White this morning in New York to appeal his five-game suspension (one start) for throwing at and hitting Charlie Hayes during a game June 15 against the Colorado Rockies. If he loses, and history dictates players have not had much success at this process, he must begin serving his suspension immediately. The doubleheaders can work in the Dodgers favor, if they count as two games.

But the way this trip has gone, they probably won’t.

The temperature at the start of the 7:35 p.m. game was a stifling 94 degrees, with humidity off the charts. At midnight it was 82 degrees.

So when the song, “Heat Wave” came blasted through the stadium sound system after seven innings, it was met with loud applause.

Much later, the sound system blasted “In the Midnight Hour” for the 3,000 people who remained to the end.