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Dodgers Hit a Bump at End of a Long Road, 6-4

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Times Staff Writer

The Dodgers finally ran out of road Wednesday night, but not before veering out of control one last time.

They ended their last trip of the season with something less than a sentimental sendoff from the Houston Astros, who spotted the Dodgers one manager (Bob Lillis) and one shortstop (Dickie Thon) but still came back from four runs down against Fernando Valenzuela to win, 6-4, on Kevin Bass’ two-run, 10th-inning home run off Dodger reliever Tom Niedenfuer.

The mild-mannered Lillis and the equally polite Thon were ejected on consecutive plays in the fourth inning.

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Lillis hadn’t been tossed from a game since he was 11 days into his big-league career in 1958, and that’s only because somebody tossed a towel and he was mistakenly fingered as the culprit. Thon said he’d never been ejected.

But it all wound up being much ado about nothing when Bass unloaded on an 0-and-2 pitch by Niedenfuer, who recently had jettisoned such untimely offerings from his late-inning act but hit one more sour note in a wobbly September song.

Even with the loss, the Dodgers moved one step closer to a division title when the Reds also lost in extra innings. The Dodgers’ magic number to clinch is six, the number of games by which they lead the Reds.

“I was working the ladder on him, throwing fastballs higher each time, and he hit a fastball in his eyeballs,” said Niedenfuer, who had two saves in his last two appearances but had been drilled for a dozen runs in nine earlier outings this month.

“That was the pitch I wanted to make.”

Was he satisfied, then, that he’d done his job? Niedenfuer shook his head.

“I never saw a good pitch land 400 feet away.”

The Dodgers followed the flight of Bass’ ball with a 1,500-mile trip home for the final 10 games of the season after their most successful road revue in eight years. The Dodgers won 47 games away from home this season, matching their total in 1977, Tom Lasorda’s maiden season as manager.

And they wound up the last leg of a tortuous stretch of 17 road games in 19 days by taking four out of six from the Giants and Astros, who finally won one under their own roof after dropping seven straight to Los Angeles in the Astrodome.

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“The last month of the season is always the hardest part,” said Enos Cabell, whose successor as Houston first baseman, Glenn Davis, touched off the Astros’ comeback with his 19th home run in the seventh inning.

“And when you’re in a pennant race, the travel gets to you. You’re in a situation where you have no chance to unpack your bags.

“But now our last 10 are at home, which should give the guys a chance to be ready for the playoffs and the Series. It gives us all a chance to rest.”

A 4-0 lead and Valenzuela pitching is normally a cue for the Dodgers to relax. But Valenzuela couldn’t hold a 6-1 lead 10 days ago in Cincinnati, and when Steve Sax couldn’t hang on to Bill Madlock’s low throw for a force play in the seventh, another lead was about to slip away.

Madlock was charged with an error on the play, but Lasorda thought the ball should have been caught.

“I had a great view,” Lasorda said, “and it hit right in his glove. He dropped it. The ball didn’t hit the ground first.”

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Sax’s memory of the play was slightly fuzzy, but replays appeared to show the ball hitting the wrong side of his glove.

“I should have stretched out from the bag like a first baseman,” Sax said.

That would have been the second out of the inning. Instead, the Astros had two men on, and Bert Pena’s bouncer to Madlock loaded the bases. Pinch-hitter Tim Tolman’s pinch single under the glove of shortstop Mariano Duncan made it 4-3, and Bill Doran’s sacrifice fly tied it.

“All the time, the sixth or seventh inning, it’s the same thing. I don’t know why,” said Valenzuela, whose no-decision Wednesday cost him a chance at a 20-win season. With just one win in September, Valenzuela has stalled at 17.

“But I’m OK,” he added. “Ten games left, six games in front, we’ll have to see what happens.”

After Mike Marshall’s two-run, first-inning triple that fell in front of right fielder Jerry Mumphrey and caromed over his head had helped the Dodgers to a 3-0 lead off Nolan Ryan, Lillis and Thon refused to believe what the umpires said happened in the fourth.

With Greg Brock on second and Sax on first, Valenzuela hit a pogo-stick shot in front of the plate. While the ball remained suspended in the air, third baseman Phil Garner tried to backpedal to make the play, and Thon charged in from short. Thon made contact with base-runner Brock as Garner finally gloved the ball with a dive.

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Thon claimed that Brock had interfered with him. “He ran right into me,” Thon said. But third-base umpire Dick Stello disagreed, and out from the Houston dugout came Lillis.

“I argued a little too loud and a little too long,” Lillis said. “Usually I just have my say. This was longer than my say.”

On the next play, Thon started what he thought was an inning-ending double play on Mariano Duncan’s grounder, only to have first-base umpire Bob Davidson rule that Duncan had beaten the relay while Brock scored. Thon ran all the way to first to argue the play, and he was gone, too.

But while the Astros lost their debate team, they still got in the last word Wednesday. The Dodgers, however, figure that come Oct. 9, they’ll still be talking.

They left home 5 1/2 games ahead last Friday, and gained a half-game. “If you’d ask me then if I’d take that, I’d say, ‘Yeah, I’ll take it,’ ” Sax said. “Ten games left. We’re in good shape.”

Dodger Notes Bill Madlock’s 17-game hitting streak ended when he went hitless in three at-bats. Madlock also came out of the game in the bottom of the eighth because of a swollen left ankle that he first hurt sliding into home plate the night before. . . . Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda has juggled his pitching rotation for the weekend and presumably for the playoffs, moving Orel Hershiser to Friday night against the Giants, ahead of Jerry Reuss. Hershiser thus will pitch with his regular four days’ rest; Reuss will have six days between starts. Bob Welch will throw Sunday. The Dodgers look as if they’ll go with a four-man rotation the rest of the way. Fernando Valenzuela will have two more starts, his last one next Friday, which would put him on schedule to open the playoffs in L.A. on Oct. 9, assuming the Dodgers win their division. . . . If Nolan Ryan doesn’t win another game this season, his total of nine will be his lowest since he went 7-11 for the Mets in 1970. . . . Ryan’s three strikeouts gave him 196 for the season, one fewer than in 1984. . . . Valenzuela has walked 98 batters this season, just eight fewer than last season, when he led the league. Hershiser, with 65 walks, ranks second on the staff. . . . Valenzuela wore a Mexican flag pin on his uniform, given to him by Mexico’s consul in Houston. . . . Jose Cruz, the Astros’ leading hitter (.300), sat out the game because of a strained hamstring. . . . Madlock came into Wednesday’s game with a career average of .400 (10 for 25) against Ryan. . . . Ken Howell was back in uniform after missing the last two games with inflamed tonsils and a fever.

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