Dodgers Lose on 2-Hitter by Zane Who? : Another Lefty, That’s Who, Sends L.A. to 5th Defeat in Row, 3-0

A blister on Orel Hershiser’s middle finger. A blight on Dodger bats.

Hershiser was able to change his grip and continue. Dodger hitters couldn’t change theirs, however, and the losing continued Saturday as the Dodgers dropped their fifth game in a row, this one by a 3-0 score on a two-hitter by the Atlanta Braves’ Zane Smith before a crowd of 29,794.

And who is Zane Smith? Well, he’s 25, grew up in North Platte, Neb. (pop. 25,700), and likes to hunt and listen to new-wave music, usually not at the same time.

He might be named after Zane Grey, king of the Westerns. Or he might not.

“I really don’t know,” he said Saturday. “I am from Nebraska, and my brother’s name is Dana.”

How Dana got his name doesn’t seem relevant. What is, though, is that Zane Smith is left-handed, currently a distinct advantage against the Dodgers.

In five of their first 12 games, the Dodgers have faced a left-hander. They’ve been shut out twice, and in the other three games they scored a total of four earned runs. Needless to say, they haven’t beaten a left-hander yet this season.

“You’ve got to remember, they’re a beat-up team right now,” said Brave first baseman Bob Horner, whose compassion hasn’t kept him from inflicting further wounds on the Dodgers: a slump-breaking single and a home run Friday night, and a single in the Braves’ two-run first inning and a sacrifice fly in the seventh Saturday.

“That’s a makeshift lineup they have out there,” Horner added.

Until the ninth inning, when Enos Cabell singled for his first hit of 1986, it appeared that the only Dodger hit off Smith would be by a guy who wasn’t supposed to be in the lineup. Bill Russell, who hit a sharp grounder through the left side for a single following a walk to Greg Brock in the second, was playing only because Dave Anderson had bruised his left palm.

“I don’t know, don’t ask me,” Russell said before any interrogation could begin. “We’re just doing everything wrong.”

It didn’t help that Hershiser still wasn’t right after developing an almond-sized blister last Sunday in a 3-2 win over the Giants.

“The blister was really a little bit nagging,” said Hershiser, who has given up five earned runs in three starts but already has two-thirds as many losses (2) as he had last season, when he went 19-3.

“I think that’s why I walked a few people (four), and the walks killed me.

The first walk came to Dale Murphy with two out and nobody on base in the first inning.

“I knew I didn’t have good stuff in the first inning,” Hershiser said. “That’s why I was trying to pitch around him, because I knew I didn’t have anything to get him out with. He proved that when he got the double (in the fifth).”

Horner followed the first-inning walk to Murphy with a solid single to center, then Hershiser lost Ted Simmons on a 3-and-2 pitch to load the bases. Terry Harper followed with a ground single just past the reach of shortstop Mariano Duncan, and the Braves had runs on the scoreboard in the first, something the Dodgers have yet to do this season.

The Dodgers had Jerry Reuss warming up in the top of the second in case Hershiser couldn’t pitch, but Hershiser found that by taking his finger off the seam he could still throw his fastball, so he stayed on.

The Dodgers, meanwhile, struggled on. Brave right fielder Claudell Washington robbed Cesar Cedeno of extra bases with a belly-flop catch of Cedeno’s liner in the second. Brave third baseman Ken Oberkfell backhanded Mike Marshall’s liner in the fifth and also snatched Cedeno’s liner out of the air to end the game.

Otherwise, as Vin Scully described it, the Dodgers were playing pepper with Smith, getting the ball out of the infield only three times in the last seven innings.

And with three more errors Saturday, the Dodger defense kept Hershiser occupied. The Braves loaded the bases in the third on a walk, a wild pitch on a third strike and a fumble by Cabell of Ken Oberkfell’s chopper, but Hershiser escaped by retiring Glenn Hubbard on a fly ball.

Hershiser was charged with a balk in the fifth that put Murphy on third after his double. But with runners on first and third, Hershiser let Harper’s popped bunt drop, then turned it into a double play.

In the sixth, with Smith at the plate, the Dodgers had Hubbard caught on a pitchout. But someone forgot to tell Greg Brock the play was on, and while Brock scrambled to cover the bag, Mike Scioscia’s throw went into the outfield.

Hershiser dodged that one, too, striking out Smith and Washington. But in the seventh, after singles by Rafael Ramirez and Murphy, Hershiser was lifted for Ken Howell.

The Braves left 11 men on base. The Dodgers had just six base-runners.

“The bats are going to come around,” Hershiser said bravely. “When you’re going through a dry spell, these things happen. We’re going through a desert. But you know, don’t panic.”

The Dodgers, never more than two games below .500 last season, are now six under the break-even point and five games behind first-place Houston.

“What I’ve seen from playing up here is it’s not the games behind, it’s who’s in front of you,” said Mike Marshall, who went 0 for 4 Saturday and is batting .196.

“When you start falling behind by a few games early, everybody’s in front of you. We definitely want to put an end to that.

“But there isn’t any quick solution--there really isn’t. You have to wait it out, and hopefully it will turn around. If it doesn’t, we’re going to be in trouble.”

Dodger Notes Mike Marshall was puzzled that Zane Smith, a power pitcher in the past who had shut out the Dodgers last Oct. 3, relied primarily on his breaking stuff Saturday. “Maybe he figured we’re a fastball-hitting team,” Marshall said. Smith credited catcher Ted Simmons for his altered approach. “Ted likes to call a lot of changeups, and I think that was the key to the game,” Smith said. “I knew they were sitting on my heater,” meaning his fastball, “so we started to do something to help me out.” . . . Bill Madlock, still out with a strained hip muscle, on the struggling Mike Marshall (9 for 42): “We have enough offensive problems, even when I’m in there, without Pete (Guerrero). But having me out, Sax out, puts a lot of pressure on Moose. You can see it’s not his natural swing.” Said Marshall: “I’d be silly to say I’m swinging the bat well. But I’ve showed signs. I’ve hit the long ball a few times; there are signs I’m coming out of it. It’s like the team: There’s no quick solution.” . . . Manager Tom Lasorda, on whether Marshall is feeling additional pressure: “If he is, he’s putting it on himself. Nobody’s putting it on him.”

Greg Brock, who had a .178 average against left-handers in 1985, is 1 for 15 (.067) against left-handers so far this season. . . . The Dodgers have had a hit in the first inning in just three of their first 12 games. . . . The 30 runs the Dodgers scored in their first 11 games are the fewest they’ve scored since 1970, when they scored 24. In the 12th game in 1970, the Dodgers won, 10-1, in Atlanta. . . . The Dodgers were down to 19 healthy players Saturday. Dave Anderson, originally scheduled to start at second base, was scratched from the lineup after bruising his palm during infield practice. “The second day in a row it’s happened on that land mine,” Anderson said, referring to the Atlanta stadium infield. “Why don’t they hold another motocross on it?” Fernando Valenzuela was back in Los Angeles to see his wife, Linda, and their new baby girl; Carlos Diaz had a boil removed and could not pitch; Steve Sax’s bruised heel made him available only to pinch hit, and Madlock’s strained left hip muscle probably will keep him sidelined until Monday, when the Dodgers play the Giants at San Francisco. . . . When the Dodgers started the season 3-9 in 1976, they won their next 12 in a row to move from last to first place. That team finished 92-70, 10 games behind Cincinnati.