51s revel in their brush with pennant race

Nick Christensen

Monday, Oct. 4, 2004 | 9:56 a.m.

LOS ANGELES -- The day after the celebration, with the champagne crusted to the ceiling and blowers drying out the freshly shampooed carpets in the home clubhouse at Dodger Stadium, it was back to business-as-unusual for the Las Vegas 51s.

Joe Thurston, Antonio Perez, Chin-Feng Chen and Jose Flores were among those called up to Los Angeles at the end of the Triple-A season, and had limited game time in the month that followed.

But Dodgers manager Jim Tracy opted to protect his impact players' health rather than avoid putting in the call-ups in the meaningless game for Los Angeles. Tracy opted to start Flores on Sunday, and he put in Chen and Perez in the second inning after giving Adrian Beltre and Steve Finley a chance to accept a leftover ovation from Saturday night. Edwin Jackson and Thurston entered in the sixth inning to pitch and play second, respectively.

Once Houston's victory against Colorado was displayed on the right-field scoreboard, and the Giants were eliminated from the playoffs, the reserves came in for the Giants, as well.

But all the game time for the call-ups in Sunday's match couldn't add up to the significance of Antonio Perez's pinch-running in the top of the ninth on Saturday's game against San Francisco.

Perez, the 51s' 2004 MVP, pinch-ran for Hee-Seop Choi with the game tied 3-3, and was on third when Steve Finley hit his game-winning, division-clinching grand slam.

"I remember thinking, 'This could really happen,' then everything started falling to pieces on the other side," Thurston said of the improbable ninth-inning rally.

When everything was done falling apart, the ball Finley hit sailed towards the San Gabriel Mountains but settled for the right-field pavilion, and Perez watched just to make sure he didn't have to tag up before scoring the winning run of the 7-3 clinching game.

Perez, in the clubhouse Sunday morning with the smells of Saturday lingering, was still trying to grasp what happened.

"It's unbelievable," he said. "I was anticipating for plays, anywhere if there was contact. I was looking for a pitch for the championship."

Even the usually quiet Chen was talkative.

"I've never been in anything this special," Chen said. "This is very different."