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Giants win sixth straight game

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- With the San Francisco Giants leading 1-0 in the sixth inning and the ball zooming toward left field, Moises Alou started scrambling.

He made a diving catch in the alley, saving two runs and helping San Francisco extend its winning streak to six games with a 3-1 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Monday night.

"He came out of nowhere and made a Superman catch," Giants starter Brad Hennessey said. "It was a huge game saver."

Julio Ramirez scored the go-ahead run on a throwing error by third baseman Mike Edwards in the eighth inning to help the second-place Giants keep climbing in the NL West.

"We didn't look like a team that was going to make a move like that," Giants manager Felipe Alou said. "I got to give the guys credit."

The Giants trail idle San Diego by five games. The third-place Dodgers fell 7½ games behind the Padres, losing their fourth in a row.

Before the game, Barry Bonds reunited with the Giants, taking batting practice and testing his throwing arm.

"We'll see what happens in the next couple of days," Felipe Alou said.

Bonds, recovering from three operations on his right knee since Jan. 31, said he didn't know when he would return to the lineup.

"It's day by day right now, get through today and see how I turn out," he said.

The Giants' defense executed double plays in five of the first seven innings. The one in the sixth was preceded by Alou's catch of Jeff Kent's fly ball, with runners on first and second.

"I didn't think I was going to get there. I had to dive hard to reach it," he said. "It's one of the best ones I ever made."

Moises made his father proud.

"I never made a play like that myself in all the years I played," the elder Alou said.

Oscar Robles led off the sixth with a single to left that Alou blamed on himself.

"I should've been playing shallow," he said. "I was a little upset they got that single, so I had an opportunity to make up for it."

LaTroy Hawkins (2-5) earned the victory despite facing one batter and giving up the game-tying sacrifice fly to pinch-hitter Ricky Ledee. Hawkins came on with the bases loaded and one out. Ledee's fly ball to center scored Jose Cruz Jr., but Jayson Werth was thrown out trying to advance to third.

Armando Benitez pitched the ninth for his 12th save.

Reliever Yhency Brazoban (2-8) took the loss, giving up one run and one hit.

Ramirez was running for pinch-hitter Lance Niekro, who led off the eighth with a single. Randy Winn sacrificed Ramirez to second, J.T. Snow walked with two outs and Alou followed with a grounder to third. Edwards fielded the ball in the hole and threw wildly past second baseman Kent, allowing Ramirez to score.

"We have some young players out there, and to expect them to perform night in and night out like a seasoned veteran would play, that's asking a little much," Dodgers manager Jim Tracy said. "You can ill afford to make the kind of mistakes that we made and set up opportunities for them to score runs."

San Francisco took a 1-0 lead on a sacrifice fly by Yamid Haad
in the fifth. It was his first major league RBI.

Ray Durham led off the ninth with a double off Steve Schmoll and scored the Giants' third run on a double steal.

Hennessey allowed one run and seven hits in 6 1/3 innings, struck out two and walked three.

Dodgers starter Derek Lowe gave up one run and four hits in seven innings, struck out a season-high eight and walked one. The right-hander retired his first 11 batters before giving up a single to Snow with two outs in the fourth.

"We couldn't do enough for him offensively and we made some miscues defensively that led to every run they scored," Tracy said. "One run is very difficult to win with and that's all we got."

Lowe was hit near his right foot by Durham's single in the fifth. He then struck out Pedro Feliz, but left fielder Jose Valentin misplayed Todd Linden's single, allowing Durham to advance to third and Linden to second. Haad flied to center, scoring Durham.

"It's a team game," Lowe said. "It wasn't like Valentin was trying to let the ball go through his legs to see how far it would roll past him. Things like that happen."

Game notes
The Giants' five double plays tied a club record for a nine-inning game. ... The announced crowd of 34,871 pushed the Dodgers' attendance over the 3 million mark for a major league-record 20th time. They reached the mark in their 66th home game, the quickest in franchise history. It's the 10th straight season the Dodgers have surpassed 3 million. ... The Dodgers are
27-25 playing on Labor Day since moving to Los Angeles. ... The Giants lead the season series 7-6. ... Giants outfielder Dan Ortmeier singled for his first major-league hit in the eighth as a pinch-hitter.