Nixon Catches Two, and Piazza Really Gets One

David Segui kept staring at Dodger center fielder Otis Nixon, staring at Nixon’s glove, probably wondering what it takes to get a ball over that glove, since Nixon had robbed him of two home runs Thursday afternoon.

Maybe Segui should have been staring at Mike Piazza’s bat.

Piazza hit a ball in the third inning where even the high-jumping Nixon, on a trampoline, couldn’t have reached it. Piazza hit it over the 360-foot sign in left field, over the Dodger bullpen, over the wall at the end of the pen and into the palm trees. And that gave the Dodgers a 1-0 victory over the Montreal Expos before 38,745 at Dodger Stadium.

The victory kept the Dodgers 1 1/2 games behind the NL West-leading San Francisco Giants, who also won.

“I think he hit his car in the parking lot,” Manager Bill Russell said of Piazza’s team-leading 26th home run, a blast that was measured at 453 feet. Indeed, if there weren’t a second wall behind the palm trees, Piazza’s ball would have rolled out to where the cars are parked.

“I’d gladly take the dent [in my car] to do that,” Piazza said. “I just try to hit them where the grass don’t grow.”

That’s what Segui did as well, sending a pair of drives past the outfield grass, over the warning track, and nearly over the wall.

Segui, who has 13 home runs, first connected to lead off the second inning. Nixon, obtained in a Tuesday trade with the Toronto Blue Jays, raced back to the fence, leaped, stretched over the wall and pulled the ball in.

In the fourth inning, with Vladimir Guerrero aboard after a single, the first hit off starter and winner Ismael Valdes (7-10), Nixon pulled down another drive by Segui, this time crashing into the wall after robbing the Expo of another home run.

If the Dodgers hadn’t obtained Nixon earlier this week, they might well have lost this game, 3-1.

“I’m trying to get my bat going,” said the 38-year-old Nixon. “You try to use any asset you got. They’ve got a good ballclub here and I want to be part of it.”

Nixon has only one hit in his eight Dodger at-bats, but nobody’s complaining. If he can continue to make like a shot-blocking Hakeem Olajuwon, he’ll be a fixture in center.

Nixon’s biggest fan in the Dodger clubhouse was Valdes, whose elation was in direct contrast to the recent heartbreak he has suffered when several good pitching efforts have been wasted because of a lack of support.

One need only look at the numbers to understand Valdes’ frustration. His won-lost record is three games under .500, even though his earned-run average is 2.76. In his last seven starts, Valdes is 4-2, with a 1.46 ERA. In his career against the Expos, Valdes is 4-2 with an ERA of 1.63.

Thursday, locked in a fierce pitching duel with right-hander Pedro Martinez, Valdes went 8 1/3 innings, giving up four hits, striking out five and walking one.

“I had good control,” Valdes said. “I was hitting the corners, throwing the ball in and out. Everything was working.”

Martinez (14-6), whose ERA is a league-leading 1.70, went seven innings, giving up five hits and Piazza’s home run, striking out 12 and walking four.

Valdes made it into the ninth in search of his first complete game since 1995. He also made it past leadoff hitter Mike Lansing, who grounded to short.

But then Valdes gave up a double to Guerrero, and out came Russell with a hook, greeted by scattered boos from those who wanted to see a complete game.

Russell had bigger concerns on his mind. Like Segui.

“We wanted to turn him around,” he said of the switch-hitting first baseman.

In 253 at-bats as a left-hander, Segui has hit 11 home runs and driven in 46 runs. In 74 at-bats from the right side, he has two home runs and six RBIs.

So Russell removed the right-handed Valdes and brought in left-hander Scott Radinsky.

Radinsky got Segui on a called third strike, heaping still more frustration on the Expo hitter. And then, when Manager Felipe Alou allowed the left-handed Darrin Fletcher to take his cuts against Radinsky, the Dodger reliever got Fletcher on a grounder to second for his second save of the season.

But anyone who saw Thursday’s game knows the save should have gone to Nixon.