Castillo Fails to Save the Day or the Streak : Frustrated Reliever Can Find No Relief as Giants Win, 5-2

Bobby Castillo, the Wile E. Coyote of the Dodger pitching staff, tried to convince the world Saturday that if disaster has to befall somebody, it might as well be him.

“If I have to take the bad luck for the staff, I’ll take it,” said Castillo, who has served as target practice for opposing hitters while the rest of the Dodger pitchers have been successfully dodging bullets.

Saturday afternoon was no exception. Castillo, who hadn’t pitched since giving up a two-run home run to Cincinnati’s Nick Esasky on Aug. 2, inherited a 2-2 tie in the eighth inning. By the time he was through, the last-place Giants had won, 5-2, ending the Dodgers’ eight-game winning streak, before a crowd of 18,731 at Candlestick Park.

Castillo, who entered the game with Dan Gladden on third and one out, issued an intentional walk to Chili Davis, who had homered off Dodger starter Rick Honeycutt, one of two home runs allowed by Honeycutt and the first homer that the switch-hitting Davis had hit right-handed all season.

Castillo’s next walk, to pinch-hitter Dan Driessen, also came on four pitches but was not intended. It loaded the bases for Joel Youngblood, who doubled into the left-field corner to drive in three runs and get his first game-winning hit of the season.

The loss went to Carlos Diaz, who was responsible for Gladden’s presence on base. Gladden beat out a grounder to the hole and took second when Mariano Duncan’s hurried throw skipped past first baseman Greg Brock for an error on the shortstop. Gladden went to third on Brad Wellman’s sacrifice.

The fault-finders went to Castillo, whose earned-run average of 6.32 bespeaks the trial that this season has become for him.

“It’s frustrating,” Castillo said. “Tommy (Lasorda, the manager) and Ron (Perranoski, the pitching coach) showed confidence in bringing me in there, and I let them down. That’s what hurts.”

The pattern has become all too familiar. In 47 innings this season, Castillo has given up 34 earned runs on 45 hits and 31 walks. Those are not numbers that inspire confidence, which is the primary reason, of course, that Castillo has pitched so infrequently. Then again, the less he pitches, the less chance he has of pitching any more effectively.

“When you’re the long man on the staff that we have,” Lasorda said, “you don’t get to pitch much.”

Why pitch Castillo with the game on the line? Ken Howell had pitched three innings the night before and was unavailable, but Tom Niedenfuer was in the bullpen.

Asked if he hadn’t summoned Niedenfuer because the score was tied, Lasorda shook his head. “I wanted to give Niedenfuer a couple of days off,” he said.

When asked if Niedenfuer would have gotten the call had the Dodgers been ahead, Lasorda answered: “If I had a lead, I would, maybe.”

Lasorda said he couldn’t remember the last time Castillo had been effective. But when asked if he needed another pitcher, Lasorda took exception to the question.

“I’m not going to rip the kid,” the manager said. “How do you know he’s not going to pitch better the next time? I can’t answer that question.”

Castillo, asked how his confidence was bearing up these days, said: “I don’t know. If you find it, let me know.

“No, my confidence is still there, but it seems like it’s one pitch that’s really hurting me.”

In this case, he said, it was a fastball to Youngblood “that ran back over the plate. If I’d had any luck, he should have hit that ball foul.”

When someone asked him if he were willing to be a martyr, suffering pain, he said: “That’s all right.”

But in truth, he said, it’s killing him.

“It is, man, but what can I say? I’ve got to do something to make me feel good.”

The Dodgers could do little against Giant starter Atlee Hammaker, who struck out five in a row after falling behind, 2-0, in the first three innings. Reliever Scott Garrelts put two Dodger runners on base in each of the last two innings but was credited with his fifth straight win.

Pedro Guerrero drove in both Dodger runs, with an infield out in the first inning and a single in the third, but he acknowledged that he isn’t hitting the way he had been for the better part of two months.

“I’m kind of lost a little bit at the plate,” said Guerrero, who hasn’t homered since he hit his 28th on Aug. 9 and has just five singles in the last week.

“I can’t really find my way to where I was two or three weeks ago. Pitches that I laid off before, even if they were real close (to the strike zone), I find myself swinging at.

“Plus, I’m swinging too hard. I don’t know if I want to hit home runs or what, but I’m swinging too hard.”

Because his left knee was bothering him, Guerrero tried to take a day off Thursday, yet wound up playing the last four innings. “I thought taking a day off might help,” Guerrero said. “But I know I’ll start hitting again.

“We’ve got to keep playing great--we’ve got to keep going harder and harder every day--because I believe those guys behind us (the Padres and Reds) have good teams.”

Dodger Notes Enos Cabell, who missed his fourth straight game Saturday, now says it may be Tuesday before he can play. “I tried to run, but the pain stopped me,” said Cabell, who has a strained abdominal muscle. “The pain just shot right through there.” . . . Mariano Duncan had three more hits Saturday, giving him seven in two games, and also went from first base to third on an infield out in the first inning. On that play, he slid into Giant third baseman Chris Brown, who was forced to leave the game with a sprained left ankle. Duncan also became the third Dodger this week to bunt a ball off his finger, though he said the finger was all right. The other two were pitchers Jerry Reuss and Bob Welch. . . . Two Dodgers were called out on bunts: Duncan, when his bunt struck him after leaving the batter’s box, and Bob Bailor, whose bat hit the ball twice. . . . Rick Honeycutt gave up just four hits in six innings, including home runs to Chili Davis and David Green. “I can’t believe the ball Davis hit,” Honeycutt said. “It couldn’t have been more than six to eight inches off the ground and inside. Green’s came on a mistake, over the plate.” Honeycutt was encouraged that when he got in trouble in the sixth after Brad Wellman’s double and an error by Steve Sax, he threw a double-play ball to Joel Youngblood. “That was a good sign,” he said, “to get into a jam and pitch out of it.” . . . Honeycutt scored from first on Pedro Guerrero’s single when center fielder Davis slipped after fielding the ball. The relay throw by Manny Trillo appeared to have beaten Honeycutt, but he slid through the legs of catcher Alex Trevino. “He (Trevino) looked like he was real casual with it,” Honeycutt said. “He left a spot right between his legs.” Honeycutt said he banged his right knee into Trevino’s shin guards. “I had a numbing feeling for a few minutes, and I was a little shaky warming up, but after the first hitter I was OK,” the pitcher said. . . . There will be an old-timers’ game today between the 1971 Giant and Dodger teams. The regularly scheduled game will begin at 1:35 p.m.