Many at Fault for Dodgers’ Loss to Expos

If Dodger owner Peter O’Malley is looking to hold someone accountable for the way his team played in Friday’s 8-4 loss to the Montreal Expos, maybe he should start with Billy DeLury.

No, that wasn’t DeLury in center field, making a pointless throw to third base in the seventh inning and allowing the tying run to reach second base unchallenged. That was Ken Landreaux, who found a way to mess up on the same day he broke a 6-for-45 slump with three hits.

And no, that wasn’t DeLury in left field when Jim Wohlford hit a blooper that appeared to be the final out of the seventh inning but instead turned into a game-tying RBI single. That was Franklin Stubbs, whose own two hits were rendered inconsequential by his inability to make a catch he said he couldn’t have made, anyway.

And DeLury doesn’t look anything at all like the pitcher who gave up three home runs to the Expos Friday--one by Hubie Brooks, who also broke a 4-4 tie with a two-run double in the eighth. As hard as it is to believe, that pitcher was Fernando Valenzuela, who never had lost in Canada and couldn’t remember ever having given up three home runs in a game anywhere.

Finally, that wasn’t DeLury masquerading at third base in the eighth inning for Montreal and turning a terrific bases-loaded bunt by Bill Russell into an even more terrific out. That was Tim Wallach of the Expos, applying the crusher to what could have been a game-winning rally.

So just who is Billy DeLury?

He’s the Dodger traveling secretary, who booked passage for the team on a trip that has been fraught with more misadventures than Chevy Chase’s last two vacations combined.

Mike Marshall, the Dodgers’ leading hitter and best defensive outfielder, spent part of Friday in the hospital and none of it on the field. He was having his left arm examined after having been hit by a pitch Thursday in Chicago.

Mariano Duncan, the Dodgers’ leadoff man, lasted three pitches into the game. He came out to have his swollen left knee examined.

And Tom Niedenfuer, who started the season as the Dodgers’ No. 1 reliever, never even got to the ballpark. No, he wasn’t having his head examined. Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda told his shell-shocked and arm-weary right-hander to take the day off.

Enos Cabell hobbled into work on a sprained left ankle and was available only to pinch-hit. And Carlos Diaz hurt his left shoulder throwing in the bullpen and was scheduled to see a doctor after the game.

It’s a wonder the team bus made it to Olympic Stadium without running off the road.

So, perhaps it’s no wonder the Dodgers couldn’t avoid losing for the third time in four games on this trip and for the 10th time in 13 games away from home this spring.

Except that the Dodgers could have avoided this loss, after staking Valenzuela to a 4-2 lead on Reggie Williams’ 80-foot, two-run single and RBI hits by Stubbs and Landreaux.

But it all began to unravel in the Expo seventh, which began innocuously enough when Wallach grounded a single under third baseman Dave Anderson’s glove, only the fifth Montreal hit of the afternoon.

Montreal rookie Andres Galarraga forced Wallach at second for one out, but Vance Law followed with a line single to left-center. Landreaux, shaded to right-center, fielded the ball on one hop but aimed his throw toward third base.

“It’s a cardinal rule--you can’t let the tying run go to second base,” said Lasorda, who couldn’t bring himself to talk about this loss until he’d kept the clubhouse closed for a good 15 minutes.

“I think everyone knows that.”

Everyone may know it, but Landreaux provided irrefutable evidence that there are some big league center fielders who don’t do it.

The next batter, Mike Fitzgerald, had hit a 400-foot home run off Valenzuela his last time up. This time, Fitzgerald hit what would have been a double-play ground ball to short. Instead, Russell got the out at first base, and Wallach scored to make it 4-3.

Wohlford then entered the game as a pinch hitter and lifted a fly toward the line in left. Stubbs, who was shaded toward left-center, arrived in time to surround the ball, but he didn’t catch it.

“I couldn’t get that ball--I was going as fast as I could go,” said Stubbs, who nailed Wohlford going to second but not before the score was tied.

Even that play might have been incidental to the outcome if the Dodgers could have found a way to score after loading the bases with none out in the eighth. But they couldn’t.

Anderson, who had bounced to the pitcher on each of his three previous at-bats, didn’t even hit it on his fourth. Expo reliever Jeff Reardon struck him out on three pitches.

Valenzuela, given a chance to win his own game, bounced to third, where Wallach fired home to force Mike Scioscia.

That left it up to Russell, in the game only because Duncan had come out. Russell noticed that third baseman Wallach was playing back, and thought the element of surprise would work in his favor.

It didn’t. Wallach, a Gold Glove winner, said he suspected that Russell might try a bunt after Reardon’s second pitch.

“Russell’s always been a pretty good bunter,” Wallach said. “And they (the Dodgers) have been trying everything to score runs.”

Russell laid down his bunt, a beauty to the left of the mound. Only one man had a shot at making the play, and Wallach did just that, swooping in for a barehanded pickup and a throw on the run.

The Dodgers were heard from no more. The Expos scored four runs in the eighth and finished off Valenzuela, who didn’t help himself with a pickoff throw at second that struck Tim Raines, who had singled.

Raines went to third. With one out, Lasorda had the option of pitching to Andre Dawson, the Expos’ leading hitter, or to Brooks, who already had a triple and a home run and who came into the game batting .370 in his career against the Dodgers.

Lasorda elected to walk Dawson and hope for a double play. Instead, Brooks hit the first pitch down the line and into the left-field corner for a double, two runs scoring, and Galarraga, known as Gran Gato (Big Cat) let out a final Expo roar with a blast over the right-field wall.

Valenzuela had a hard time comprehending the homers.

“One to left field, one to center, one to right,” he said. “I think that’s the first time.”

But for the Dodgers, it was just another bizarre twist on an ill-fated itinerary.

Anybody seen DeLury?

Dodger Notes

Montreal Manager Bob (Buck) Rodgers, ejected from the game in the eighth inning by home-plate umpire Dave Pallone, afterward described Pallone “an incompetent scab (bleep), and you can quote me on that.” Rodgers, whose term “scab” alluded to Pallone’s hiring by the National League during the umpires’ strike seven years ago, was ejected after an exchange between Pallone and Expo reliever Jeff Reardon. Reardon had questioned Pallone’s call on what the pitcher believed should have been a called third strike on the Dodgers’ Reggie Williams. On the next pitch, Williams walked, loading the bases, but Reardon pitched out of the jam. Then, on Reardon’s way to the dugout, according to Rodgers, Pallone “charged” the pitcher. “He (Pallone) went down the line and said, ‘Don’t ever do that to me again or I’ll bury you for the bleeping year,’ ” Rodgers said. “I went out to defend my player, and he said, ‘If you come out of the dugout, you’re out of there.’ I was out of there before I got to within 50 feet of him.” Pallone told Montreal reporters that Reardon didn’t hear him right. “I said, ‘Don’t ever bury me like that,’ ” Pallone reportedly said.

Dodger injury update: X-rays on Mike Marshall’s left arm were negative. Marshall, who was struck by a pitch just above the left elbow in Thursay’s game against the Chicago Cubs, said his availability will be day-to-day, but he couldn’t swing a bat Friday. . . . Mariano Duncan, who came out of Thursday’s game with a swollen left knee and departed Friday after three pitches, is said to have a strained left knee. He, too, is day to day. . . . Enos Cabell, who had a sprained left ankle, was available to pinch hit. . . . Carlos Diaz, who said his shoulder hurt while throwing in the bullpen, apparently either will go on the disabled list or be optioned to Albuquerque to make room for Bill Madlock, who will be activated today. . . . Expo catcher Mike Fitzgerald, whose home run added to Montreal’s league-leading total of 39, said his 400-foot shot to center field was “about my nicest home run I’ve ever hit. Fernando had gotten me out about 12 times in a row, and I just wanted to get a hit real bad.”