"Never before."

Those were the words of Ronny Cedeno after he rifled a bases-loaded single in the 10th inning to rally the Pirates past the Los Angeles Dodgers, 4-3, Wednesday night at PNC Park, bringing a second stirring victory to open the season.

Cedeno was referring to never having had a walkoff hit.

"First one of my life," he said in a far quieter moment later at his stall.

Not even in the minors?

"No. Seriously, never."

He shook his head, wiped his brow and smiled.

"And it's so exciting."

It was easy to see Cedeno was not the only one feeling that way on this night, and not just from the leaping, helmet-slapping celebration that surrounded him near first base ...

The game drew a surprisingly large crowd of 31,061, most for any second game at PNC since 2002. It was greatly aided by a Buck Night promotion -- thousands of $1 tickets, as well as $1 hot dogs and beverages -- but team officials also pointed to the continuing wonderful weather and, of course, that 11-5 opening victory Monday.

The players, as they did Monday, expressed unsolicited appreciation for the support.

"It's great for us to see all the fans, and we hope they weren't just here because it was a dollar," reliever D.J. Carrasco said with a grin. "We feel what we've got is contagious, and we want the city to be a part of it. We like what we have here."

And that "here," the clubhouse, was where the rest of the excitement could be found.

The Pirates' buoyant mood following the opener was unmistakably built more on relief than revelry after a 7-21-1 spring training, but this was different: The game was tight most of the way, with several pivotal points, and it was clear that whichever team would come out on top would enjoy it thoroughly.

As reliever Brendan Donnelly put it, "It was a real baseball fight, a real battle. It just came down to us getting that big hit."

One big hit came early, a third home run by Garrett Jones in two games.

Aki Iwamura walked to open the Pirates' first, Andrew McCutchen singled, and Jones belted left-hander Clayton Kershaw's belt-high fastball into the center-field seats -- giving him a home run to all three fields already -- for a 3-0 lead.

Jones had called the opener "a dream," but he did not hesitate when asked which of these games he enjoyed more.

"Oh, this one, for sure. That's a great win."

Starter Ross Ohlendorf shook off an awful finish to his spring -- 20 runs in his last 12 2/3 innings -- to limit Los Angeles to three runs and five hits in his five innings, all the damage coming in Los Angeles' three-run fifth: Russell Martin homered and, after an Andy LaRoche error, Matt Kemp's RBI double and Andre Ethier's RBI single tied the score at 3-3.

The Dodgers had the best chances to put it away.

In the ninth, with Pirates manager John Russell turning to closer Octavio Dotel to protect the tie, Jamey Carroll doubled to center. Andrew McCutchen made a diving attempt on that sinking liner and came up short, but Lastings Milledge sharply backed him up to limit Carroll to two bases, part of a terrific all-around showing for Milledge.

Carroll then took third on Dotel's wild pitch, and the go-ahead run was 90 feet away with nobody out.

A dollar for Dotel's thoughts?

"Don't panic," he recalled. "You can't start thinking about it, like 'Oh, my God.' Just relax yourself, and go pitch by pitch."

Dotel delivered: He got a comebacker from Rafael Furcal, froze Kemp with a third-strike fastball and, after a walk to Ethier, got Manny Ramirez, one of the game's most formidable hitters, to ground out to second.

Walking someone to get to Ramirez?

Easy explanation: Ramirez had been 0 for 7 with three strikeouts in his career against Dotel.

Donnelly, too, found trouble in the 10th, walking two while visibly pitching without his best stuff. Still, he got two popups and walked off unscathed.

"You're not always going to have your best," Donnelly said. "Just get it done however you can."

That set the stage for the climax in the bottom half.

Milledge led off against Ramon Ortiz by grounding a ball to second that Blake DeWitt muffed, then threw high. He was charged with an error.

"It's a play you should make 100 times out of 100," DeWitt said. "And it cost us."

Jeff Clement bunted Milledge to second, and LaRoche and pinch-hitter Ryan Church drew five-pitch walks to load the bases for Cedeno, and the crowd rose to its feet in unison.

Ortiz got ahead, 0-2, and made Cedeno look bad in swinging over two sliders. But Cedeno persevered through a nine-pitch at-bat, fouling off three 2-2 pitches in a row before leveling a fastball into left-center through the drawn-in outfield.

"I just kept waiting for my pitch, waiting and waiting," Cedeno said. "I got it, and it felt good."

"Ronny was a little anxious early, but he stayed with it," Russell said.

The Pirates are 2-0 for the first time since starting 2007 at 3-0, and they are 2-0 to start a season at home for the first time since 1993.

But the talk was much less about the record than about this specific result.

"These guys played hard against a very good ball club," Russell said. "They're having fun."