Lima relishes chance to save L.A.'s season

The Dodgers trail St. Louis 2-0 in the best-of-five series.
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- He sings, he dances. He serves as the Dodgers' unofficial cheerleader, racing nonstop around the dugout and constantly pumping his teammates up.
Most important, Jose Lima pitches -- and very well at Dodger Stadium.
He'll pitch there tonight against the St. Louis Cardinals in the most important start of his life.
After beating Los Angeles by identical 8-3 scores in the first two games of the best-of-five NL division series in St. Louis, the heavy-hitting Cardinals can put the Dodgers away with another victory.
Sees bright side
Ever the optimist, Lima sees a bright side.
"If we win and push the series to Sunday, anything can happen," he said Friday -- an off day in the series. "I've got to come and give my heart to this team. If we lose, it's see you in spring training.
"I want to stay in the playoffs a little longer -- at least get to Sunday."
Lima sang "God Bless America" and the national anthem before the Dodgers' game against the Cubs on May 13. He also performed with his band, Banda Mambo, at the team's annual Viva Los Dodgers Hispanic Heritage festival, and performed at The Conga Room, a Los Angeles nightclub, later that night.
On the late-night flight from St. Louis to Los Angeles after the Dodgers lost Game 2, Lima behaved the same way he would have had his team won the first two games.
"He was thinking about this game at 4:30 this morning. He was playing his music on the bus, so he was getting fired up already," Dodgers closer Eric Gagne said. "He changed the mood a little bit because everyone was down."
That's understandable, especially considering how they lost the first two games.
Starters ineffective
First, the Los Angeles starters, Odalis Perez and Jeff Weaver, weren't effective, combining to allow 12 runs in 7 1-3 innings.
The Cardinals scored 13 of their 16 runs with two outs.
"You get two outs, you've got two-thirds of the job done in any given half inning," Dodgers manager Jim Tracy said. "You get the first two outs against this club, you've still got another one to get.
"You don't just win 105 baseball games during the course of the regular season by sitting around in a fireside chat and say, 'Hey, we're gong to win 105 this year.' There's a lot of elements that go into that. There are a lot of little things that you have to do."
Finally, the Dodgers failed to come through in the clutch.
The Cardinals won Game 1 with the long ball, hitting five homers.
They won Game 2 thanks to the bottom of their lineup; Edgar Renteria, Reggie Sanders and Mike Matheny, the sixth, seventh and eighth hitters, went 8-for-10 with five runs and five RBIs.
The Dodgers drew seven walks in Game 2, but their only runs came on three solo homers.
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