Dodgers Try Shuffle in Chicago, Fall, 6-5

The Dodgers tried to put one over on the Chicago Cubs Thursday afternoon, passing off Balvino Galvez as their best reliever and Franklin Stubbs as their center fielder.

The ploy didn’t work, even though Jerry Reuss was spotted a four-run lead in the first inning. Stubbs was spun around by a fly ball; relievers Ed Vande Berg and Tom Niedenfuer threw consecutive wild pitches, and Mike Marshall’s bid for a game-winning, ninth-inning home run died in a stiff wind that preserved the Cubs’ 6-5 win before a Wrigley Field crowd of 13,592.

The Dodgers, who had won seven in a row at home before losing Sunday, have now lost three of their last four games. They also have lost 9 of 12 on the road after having the best road record in the league last season.

“Usually, when we score five runs, we win the ballgame,” Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda said.

The unusual, however, predominated Thursday, beginning with Lasorda’s decision to bench the slump-locked Ken Landreaux and put Stubbs in center field, where he had played just once before in the big leagues--here two years ago, when he misjudged a line drive.

In addition, Marshall was hit twice by pitches, Mariano Duncan hurt his left knee and Enos Cabell sprained his left ankle. Pitcher Bob Welch and catcher Alex Trevino were used as pinch-runners.

And the Cub leadoff man, second-year shortstop Shawon Dunston, became their leading home run hitter with a line drive that sliced through the wind during Chicago’s four-run fifth inning.

Lasorda normally uses Reggie Williams in place of Landreaux. But he also wanted Terry Whitfield, his No. 1 left-handed pinch-hitter, to get some times at bat, so he put Whitfield in left and Stubbs in center.

“If God gave me legs, I can play anywhere,” Stubbs said before the game.

But apparently, the ability to judge fly balls is not divinely ordained, which became evident in the second inning when Stubbs turned left, then right, then turned his back on a towering fly by Leon Durham.

The ball landed on the warning track, and Durham was credited with a triple. He scored on an ensuing infield out.

“I saw the ball until it was directly in the sun,” said Stubbs, who was shifted to left when Williams replaced Whitfield in the fourth.

“It could have happened to anybody. I’ve seen it happen to guys who play out there every day.”

An inning later, third baseman Dave Anderson couldn’t hold Gary Matthews’ line drive that was right at him. Matthews was credited with a single, and Ryne Sandberg followed with a double, Matthews just beating Duncan’s relay to the plate.

Suddenly, a 4-0 lead, created in large part by Greg Brock’s three-run home run, had been halved.

Slightly tainted runs?

“Yeah, they were,” Reuss said. “A fly ball that was catchable--difficult but catchable. And a line drive hit right at someone.

“These things happen. But when you lose by one run . . . “

Reuss, asked if these things happen more often when a first baseman by trade is playing in center field, said: “I’m not the manager. I didn’t put him out there.”

Soon, Reuss was out of there, during a fifth inning that began with Dunston’s fifth homer of the season and only got worse.

Matthews followed with a shot down the right-field line for a double, and after an infield out, Keith Moreland blooped an opposite-field single, tying the score.

In came Vande Berg, who retired Durham on a comebacker to the mound but then walked Jody Davis on four pitches, the last bouncing off catcher Mike Scioscia into the box seats behind the on-deck circle.

Then, for the third straight day, it was Niedenfuer, and for the second time in three days, it wasn’t pretty. Niedenfuer’s first pitch also clanked off Scioscia, Moreland scoring the go-ahead run. Ron Cey then lined a run-scoring double to left, and the Cubs led, 6-4.

Galvez threw his wild pitch in the bullpen, nearly striking first baseman Brock from behind. But when he entered the game, he was under control, pitching two scoreless innings to keep the Dodgers close. He also knocked down Cub cleanup hitter Moreland in apparent retaliation for the two times that Marshall was hit.

The Dodgers drew within a run in the eighth on Stubbs’ opposite-field double and Williams’ single, marking Williams’ first big league run batted in. Anderson sacrificed Williams to second, but ace Cub reliever Lee Smith struck out pinch-hitter Landreaux and Bill Russell to end the inning.

The strikeout was Landreaux’s fourth in a row.

“When’s the last time you’ve seen Landreaux strike out four times in a row?” Lasorda said. “It must be unusual, because I’ve never seen it, either.”

Scioscia singled with one out in the ninth, bringing up Marshall, who had taken a breaking pitch in the back of the head from Cub starter Scott Sanderson in the first and a fastball from reliever Jay Baller just below the left elbow in the seventh.

“The first one just made my ears ring a little bit,” Marshall said. “But the second one, it was cold and it got me real good. You can still see the stitches of the ball.”

For a moment, it appeared that Marshall might leave his own mark on Smith and the Cubs, sending a ball headed toward the bleacher bums in left field.

“There was an instant when I thought it was going to be out of here,” Marshall said. “But real quick, reality sets in. I knew the wind would keep it in the ballpark.”

In the ballpark and into Jerry Mumphrey’s glove. One batter later, the game was over as Brock bounced out to second.

In the battle of the bullpens, the Dodgers had taken the fall, losing two games out of three.

Marshall, for one, tried to remain upbeat about the Dodger relief corps, which at the moment is functioning with only one smooth operator, Ken Howell.

“They’ve always done it before in the past,” Marshall said. “They just have to get in the right rhythm. It’s a situation where Tommy’s flip-flopping guys, seeking the right combination.

“Once he finds it, I think they’ll settle down.”

Dodger Notes

Here are the dimensions of Ken Landreaux’s slump: No hits in his last 11 at-bats, 1 hit in his last 17, 6 in his last 45. After replacing Cesar Cedeno in Wednesday’s game, Landreaux struck out three times, twice on a called third strike. “He’s not playing because he’s not swinging the bat well,” Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda said. How long would he be on the bench? “I have no idea,” Lasorda said. . . . Mariano Duncan came out of the game in the seventh inning with a swollen left knee. It began to bother him right after his first-inning double and worsened as the game went on. “I think it’s because of the cold weather,” Duncan said. “I tried to go out in the seventh, but it was really sore. I don’t know what’s going on. I hope it’s nothing.” Duncan threw a grounder away for his 11th error. His replacement, Bill Russell, also made an error. . . . Enos Cabell, who hit a pinch single in the sixth, aggravated his already sore left ankle on the way to first base. “It’s swollen on the left side and hurts on the right side,” Cabell said. “I hurt it about five days ago, and this morning it really swelled up.” . . . Lasorda said he spoke by telephone to White Sox Manager Tony LaRussa, whose firing appears to be imminent. “Terrible, terrible, terrible,” Lasorda said of LaRussa’s situation, which has been dragging on for at least a week. “That’s like having your head in the guillotine, waiting for the ax to fall. It’s not good for the team or the manager himself.”