Defeat Keeps Dodgers Sweating in Cellar, 2-1

The desert isn’t the only place where you can see a mirage.

Try Busch Stadium, where Dodger visions of climbing back into the National League West race are evaporating in the shimmering waves of heat rising off the 130-degree carpet floor.

Willie McGee’s spikes didn’t melt, as they did here three years ago, but Saturday afternoon, Bob Welch got burned once more.

Andy Van Slyke’s seventh-inning home run off Welch broke a 1-1 tie and gave the Cardinals a 2-1 win before 32,083 fans, many of them half-dressed.

The Cardinals, going nowhere in the National League East, have taken two of three here from the Dodgers, who had pledged to make a move after the All-Star break but have so far shown no inclination to vacate last place in the West.

“We came in here and got killed the first game, won last night, then turn around and lose a tough one today,” said Welch, who remained a four-game winner despite allowing just four hits and an unearned run before Van Slyke’s homer. “You can’t give in, you can’t dwell on it, but those close ones are tough.”

The Dodgers have lost 25 of 42 one-run games this season, and Welch has had more than his share, like his 1-0 loss to the Cardinals on an unearned run July 8 in Los Angeles.

“I’ve had a chance to win a lot of ballgames, but we didn’t, which doesn’t make you feel a lot better,” Welch said.

“All I can do is go out there and bust my butt. I have no control over what else happens.”

Those Dodgers who did have some control over the outcome chose not to exercise it properly. Steve Sax, who had three of the Dodgers’ seven hits and scored their run, threw Van Slyke’s ground ball from short center field to the top of the Cardinal dugout roof on one bounce, giving St. Louis a run in the first inning.

“I was out in center field--I shouldn’t have thrown it,” Sax said.

Dodger hitters were 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position, the most critical failure occurring in the eighth when St. Louis reliever Ricky Horton induced Franklin Stubbs to ground into a double play with runners on first and third.

“I’m telling you, it (the Dodgers’ standing) is not because of injuries,” said Bill Madlock, whose first-inning infield out had scored Sax with the Dodgers’ only run.

“It’s two things: the bullpen and the fact that we get runners on first and third and can’t score, even when we don’t need a hit.

“It’s happened that way all year. Today was just another mark.”

Cardinal starter Bob Forsch escaped unscathed, departing after Sax’s third hit, a one-out single in the eighth. Bill Russell followed with a pinch single off Horton, sending Sax to third, but Cardinal third baseman Terry Pendleton fielded Stubbs’ grounder to start an inning-ending double play.

Stubbs had doubled and singled earlier and had been given a reprieve on his last at-bat when Van Slyke misjudged his foul pop-up behind first base.

“I thought that was going to cost us the ballgame,” Cardinal Manager Whitey Herzog said.

Instead, it cost Herzog only a moment’s peace of mind. Cardinal rookie reliever Todd Worrell then pitched the ninth and blew away the last three Dodgers for his 16th save.

Van Slyke had hit just four home runs before his game-winner, but that still was more homers than anyone else in Saturday’s Cardinal lineup had hit. St. Louis has just 29 homers all season.

“It felt like 150 degrees out there,” Van Slyke said, “but it felt a lot cooler after the home run.

“Did I know it was gone? I don’t hit enough of them to know that.”

Welch, who struck out six and did not walk a batter, said he made a good pitch to Van Slyke.

“It was a fastball down and in,” Welch said, “but he was sitting on the fastball, I believe, and he flat-out golfed it out of there.”

The loss was the Dodgers’ 50th of the season.

“Obviously, we have to play a lot better than we are,” Russell said. “But we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. We have to hope that Pete (Pedro Guerrero) will be our savior. He’s done it before.”

Russell’s vision, of course, presumes that Guerrero will do everything short of walking on water, even though Guerrero’s left leg may give him trouble merely when he’s running.

It will be another week or two, at least, before Guerrero will even appear in a game, his first in four months.

Meanwhile, time is slipping away, even if the first-place San Francisco Giants aren’t pulling any further away.

Dodger Notes

Mike Marshall, batting .167 (7 for 42) in his last dozen games, removed himself from Saturday’s game in the fourth inning after striking out and grounding out to third base. His back, he said, is no better. “We’ve done everything,” he said. “I’ve done my exercises, taken medication, got some shots. It isn’t anybody’s fault. My back just isn’t getting any better. I go out there and do the best I can, but I can’t help the club when I go out there now. I can’t get the ball out of the infield. I’m having a lot of trouble swinging the bat. It’s frustrating.” Doctors maintain that exercise, not rest, is the best remedy for Marshall’s condition. When someone suggested that he take a month off, Marshall said: “How about February.” . . . Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda continues to be bothered by an upset stomach. He said he was able to eat only a slice of watermelon. . . . That’s show business: With the Dodgers losing, 2-1, in the eighth inning, Lasorda and Pedro Guerrero mugged for the NBC-TV cameras, Lasorda acting as if he were sending Guerrero to the plate to pinch-hit. . . . The Dodgers have promoted right-handed pitcher Shawn Hillegas from San Antonio to Albuquerque.