Dodgers Can’t Get a Grasp on Victory : Baseball: Perry gets a homer and Cardinals a 9-7 win when a fan in the stands keeps Strawberry from making a catch.

It doesn’t happen very often that the key play of a game is made by a fan in the stands, but it happened Tuesday at Dodger Stadium.

One of the 53,529 fans at the Dodgers’ home opener against the St. Louis Cardinals reached out with his glove and took a catch away from Darryl Strawberry in the right-field seats. The seventh-inning play turned a probable out into a three-run home run by Gerald Perry against reliever Pedro Martinez, put the trailing Cardinals ahead of the Dodgers and eventually sent the visitors to a 9-7 victory.

It also sent the fan out of the park.

“I just told the ushers to get him out of the park before I came back out on the field,” Strawberry said. “That was a fan interfering with a game.”

They can say what they will about the laid-back fans in Los Angeles, but when the grabby fan spoiled the Dodgers’ lead, the crowd hissed and booed until he was escorted away.

“I would have had it,” Strawberry said. “He just snatched it away.”

The Dodgers, breaking out of their offensive slump, overcame a 5-0 deficit and led the Cardinals, 7-5, when Perry was sent up to pinch-hit for relief pitcher Les Lancaster. Adding drama to the situation, Perry had been late arriving at the game.

Thinking it was a night game, he was relaxing in his hotel room when he got a call at noon from Buddy Bates, the team’s equipment man, asking if he was OK. Once alerted, Perry jumped into a cab and headed to the park. The game, which was preceded by bands, balloons and flocks of pigeons, was ready to start by the time he arrived.

Cardinal reliever Lee Smith pitched the ninth inning, saving the victory for Lancaster. The save was Smith’s 358th, which made him the all-time save leader.

“It’s quite a milestone,” said Dodger reliever Todd Worrell, who was Smith’s set-up pitcher last season with the Cardinals. “What Lee has done is manage to stay healthy. I’m happy for him.”

Rick Trlicek, one of four relievers summoned from a Dodger bullpen that has been juggled because of Worrell’s injury, gave up a home run to Tom Pagnozzi in the ninth for the Cardinals’ final run.

“Today we put the offense together, which we haven’t had for seven games, but we didn’t have the pitching, which we have had for the past seven games, so we just need to put it all together,” said Eric Karros, who contributed to every Dodger rally and finished with two hits, two runs and a run batted in.

By the end of the game, which lasted nearly 3 1/2 hours, it was difficult to remember what Dodger pitcher had started the game. Kevin Gross, given the honor of working the home opener because of the no-hitter he pitched last season, was already out of the game two batters into the third inning. By then, he had given up five runs, six hits and four walks.

Cardinal starter Rheal Cormier, who had won his last eight outings, didn’t last much longer. Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda had changed the batting order in an effort to stir the offense and the Dodgers responded as hoped. They scored five runs on nine hits against Cormier, sending him packing in the fifth inning.

“It worked out well,” Lasorda said. “How many times did the leadoff guy get on base?”

Brett Butler, who replaced Jose Offerman as the leadoff batter, reached base all five times at bat, had three hits and scored two runs. Jody Reed, who replaced Butler in the second spot, went two for five and scored a run. Jose Offerman, who replaced Reed in the eighth position, went two for four and scored a run.

“Leading off is old hat,” Butler said. “I did it for 11 years.”

All of the Dodger starters but Gross got hits, combining for 14. The last time the Dodgers scored as many as seven runs in a game was in September of last season.

“We scored twice as many runs today as we have (recently) and that’s what you credit, big timely hits,” said Tim Wallach, whose double to left in the fourth inning scored Strawberry and Karros, moving the Dodgers within two runs of the Cardinals.

The Dodgers trailed, 5-0, after 1 1/2 innings, but scored twice in the fourth inning and twice more in the fifth inning to tie it at 5-5. In the sixth, with two outs and Offerman at second base, Butler hit an opposite-field single to left field and Offerman beat Bernard Gilkey’s throw home to score the go-ahead run.

Reed followed by laying a bunt down the third-base line that rolled fair all the way to the bag. Eric Davis singled to left to score Butler and put the Dodgers up, 7-5.

Mike Piazza, who threw out two baserunners, singled home Karros with the Dodgers’ first run.

RODNEY G. KING: He tried to remain anonymous among 53,529 fans for the home opener but drew media attention.