Dodgers Not Laughing After Latest Comedy of Errors and Loss, 8-7

One night, a family outing; the next, a family disgrace. If Dodger pitcher Orel Hershiser declines to pose for the next team picture, it’s understandable.

Perhaps only a masochist would love a bunch that made a season-high five errors, including three in one inning, and allowed two runs to score on a double steal.

That was Hershiser’s lot in an 8-7 loss to the Phillies Wednesday night that ended the Dodgers’ 2-7 trip just the way it started--with one more wrong turn up a one-way street.

The Dodgers, most notably Mariano Duncan, belatedly tried to atone for their misdirected play with a rally that whittled the Phillies’ 8-2 lead. Duncan, who had three of the errors, put his team back in the game with a three-run homer in the seventh.

But it wasn’t enough. The Dodgers could not salvage this game even though:

--They had 15 hits for the second straight night, including a season-high six in one inning, the seventh, and outhit the Phillies, 15-7.

--Ken Landreaux had four hits.

--Greg Brock hit his third home run in two games and fourth in four games.

--Franklin Stubbs hit his third home run in three games.

Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda said that when he pitched, he used to fight his teammates when they played badly behind him.

Hershiser, like a similarly victimized Jerry Reuss two nights earlier, won’t even raise his voice in anger, never mind his fists.

“It’s frustrating, sure,” said Hershiser, who took his fourth loss, one more than he had all of last season. “But it’s got to be frustrating for them (his teammates) to watch me throw balls. We both need to turn our games around.

“We hit well but didn’t pitch well or field well, and that turns into a loss.”

True, Hershiser did walk five batters and hit one in six innings of work, his second straight bout of wildness.

“The last start, I felt like a time bomb ready to explode,” said Hershiser, who threw 10 straight balls last Friday in Pittsburgh.

“Tonight, I had good stuff, but I didn’t have good location. I shouldn’t walk so many people. I gave up runs when I shouldn’t have and gave them (the Phillies) extra outs.”

He wasn’t the only one, someone reminded Hershiser.

“Next question,” the pitcher said with a tight smile.

The game, however, did not turn on Hershiser’s control. Duncan, however, is another story.

The Dodger shortstop, two months into the encore of a splendid rookie season, now has a league-leading 15 errors, which makes him the No. 1 contributor to the Dodger total of 67. No other team in the league has more than 50.

Last season, Duncan evoked comparisons to Ozzie Smith, but so far this season, it might be closer to rocker Ozzie Osbourne, who also can lose control. Duncan took a .196 average into Wednesday’s game, and only on the basepaths, where he has 24 steals, has he met Dodger expectations.

He threw away an easy double-play relay in the Phillies’ four-run third inning and somehow missed catcher Mike Scioscia’s strike to the bag in the fourth, when Ron Roenicke and Juan Samuel engineered a two-run double steal.

In the fifth, he threw away a routine grounder.

“I’m getting a little concerned about him,” said Monty Basgall, the Dodger infield coach and Duncan’s major league mentor.

“Those were easy plays, and he’s made so many of that type. You can’t criticize a guy when he’s giving 100%, but half of his errors have been that type.”

Other Dodger errors, also in the third inning, were committed by third baseman Dave Anderson, whose throw on Mike Schmidt’s tapper pulled Brock off the bag, and by Steve Sax, whose relay to the plate on Steve Jeltz’s single scooted past Scioscia.

Those were the certifiable errors. There were other gems, notably Schmidt running through a coach’s stop sign at third and scoring without drawing a throw from left fielder Stubbs, and Phillie catcher Darren Daulton scoring from first base on a hit-and-run single.

Offensively, the Dodgers hit their nadir in the third, when they had runners on first and third and tried to steal, only to have Mike Marshall strike out into a double play.

That was one of four strikeouts for Marshall, who also grounded into a double play.

It’s only June, but if the Dodgers aren’t careful, somebody else, perhaps even the Houston Astros, might sneak off with what has come to be regarded atop Chavez Ravine as an O’Malley family inheritance--first place in the National League West.

At the moment, the Dodgers are closer to last place than to first. They trail the division-leading Astros by 6 1/2 games while leading the last-place Reds--who follow the Astros into Dodger Stadium--by just 1 1/2 games.

“This is an important series for us,” said ex-Astro Enos Cabell, referring to the four-game set with Houston that begins tonight. “They’re the team ahead of us.

“When I played with Houston, we always had a tough time in L.A. The games either were always close or they were blowouts, and we were the ones getting blown out.

“This is an important series for the Astros, too. They have to show they can hold on and play well.”

Lasorda, whose workout-turned-outing on Tuesday had been followed by a reversal in Dodger fortunes for one night, maintains that another turnaround lies ahead for his players.

“Nobody feels any worse than they do, and they need a word of encouragement from me,” said Lasorda, echoing the words he has uttered so many times in similar situations.

“Right now, they need an arm around them, and I’m the guy to do it. Because Mariano Duncan made three errors,” Lasorda said, “I’m not going to bench him or push him aside and say he can’t play. That’s not the way to do it.”

Lasorda only hopes that they figure out soon which way is.

Dodger Notes The Dodgers, who originally had announced that relief pitcher Carlos Diaz was eligible to return from Albuquerque Friday, have corrected themselves and now say he is eligible to come back tonight, when they play the Houston Astros at Dodger Stadium. They haven’t made it official yet that Diaz is coming back, but that is a mere formality; he is expected to be in uniform tonight, with outfielder Cesar Cedeno getting his release, eight weeks to the day after Cedeno was signed by the Dodgers. . . . Third baseman Bill Madlock was out of the starting lineup for the second straight game. He pinch-hit in the eighth and grounded out. . . . The Dodgers sent home three pitchers early--Bob Welch, Rick Honeycutt and Fernando Valenzuela. They all took commercial flights to the L.A. area Wednesday morning. . . . Alejandro Pena pitched a 1-2-3 seventh in his fourth appearance of the trip. . . . Manny Hernandez, who is pitching for the Astros tonight, will be making his big-league debut. Hernandez, a right-hander, was 2-2 in nine starts with Tucson.