Dodgers Fail to Shine at Wrigley : Winning Streak Goes Sunny-Side Down in 8-3 Defeat

Just when the Dodgers were starting to look fashionably upscale again, they wandered into the wrong neighborhood Friday.

The Chicago Cubs, who pose no threat in the National League East but are still the biggest kids on the block occupied by Wrigley Field, made it clear that the Dodgers aren’t quite ready to leave the low-rent district.

Even though the Cubs haven’t won more than three games in a row all season, they thumbed their noses at the Dodgers’ four-game winning streak, turning it into a memory as lasting as the rumble of one of the ‘L’ trains that pass outside Wrigley’s walls.

The Cubs’ 8-3 win before a crowd of 31,333 was hardly a massacre; the Dodgers didn’t disappear in a hail of bullets. The score was only 3-0, soon to be 3-1, when Dodger starter Bob Welch came out for a pinch-hitter in the seventh.

Rather, the Cubs let the Dodgers twist in the wind like the ivy that Bill Veeck planted here almost 50 years ago, making for a long afternoon of blown scoring chances and a couple of critical misadventures afield.

The Dodger relief pitching, meanwhile, belonged on Rush Street after dark instead of Clark and Addison in broad daylight. It was out of control, which left Welch with little chance of getting only his second win since April 30.

“I don’t know if he’s talking to himself,” Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda said of Welch, who is 4-9 after starting 3-1, “but I know I am.”

Welch, who has just one win in his last 17 starts, was kicking himself for his failure to squeeze home a run in the fifth, when the Dodgers had runners on second and third with no out and failed to score.

Welch fouled the bunt off, and when he swung away, he grounded to Cub first baseman Leon Durham, who trapped Mike Scioscia off third in a base-running blunder by the Dodger catcher.

Welch’s glove also let him down as he failed to field Keith Moreland’s single through the box in the sixth that made it 3-0. It was one of four hits for Moreland.

“It was right in my glove, but it hit the bottom and kept on going through,” Welch said. “It was right to me, but I didn’t catch it. An easy double-play ball.

“It would have been a much different situation if I’d gotten the squeeze down and caught the ground ball. Instead of 3-0, it’s 2-1 or 2-2.”

The situation might still have been different if the Cub shortstop had been someone other than Shawon Dunston, whose arm turns mere mortal infielders into Venus de Milos.

“Now I know why the Cubs drafted him ahead of (Dwight) Gooden,” St. Louis Manager Whitey Herzog once said of Dunston, a 23-year-old native of Brooklyn who was the No. 1 pick in a 1982 amateur draft that also included the Met pitcher.

“Dunston,” Herzog said, “has a better arm.”

Dunston turned two astonishing double plays that foreclosed Dodger rallies in the fifth and sixth.

In the fifth, he grabbed Mariano Duncan’s grounder up the middle, stepped on second and threw out the most fleet of Dodgers, marking only the fourth time this season that Duncan had been doubled up.

Then in the sixth, with runners on first and second and no outs, Dunston took a toss from second baseman Ryne Sandberg and gunned down Franklin Stubbs at first.

“Stubbs beats that ball out against any other shortstop in baseball,” Lasorda said. “His throw took off--it looked like it jumped three feet.

“He takes the ball across the base and stands right at the base--then, poom --he doesn’t even come off the bag.”

In the seventh, Dunston charged a chopper by Duncan, an almost certain base hit, but his throw again arrived ahead of Duncan. Only this time, first baseman Durham dropped the ball for an error.

“I don’t think Durham ever saw the ball,” said Enos Cabell, whom Dunston threw out from deep short in the first. “He’s got the best arm I’ve ever seen, all time. I’d like to see him throw from the outfield some time, see what he can do.”

Dunston’s ground ball in the second drove in the Cubs’ first run after Dodger right fielder Reggie Williams lost Jody Davis’ fly ball for a double.

“The ball wasn’t hit that hard,” Williams said. “But when I looked back at it, it was right in the sun. I put my glove up where I thought it would be.”

Jerry Mumphrey opened the Cub third with an opposite-field double and was almost thrown out at second, but Steve Sax couldn’t hold Stubbs’ throw. Sandberg followed with a base hit, and Mumphrey came across when Gary Matthews hit into a double play.

Three singles in the sixth, the last by Moreland, and it was 3-0. In the seventh and eighth, the Cubs teed off on Tom Niedenfuer, who walked two batters and gave up two run-scoring singles, and Carlos Diaz, who gave up Davis’ 13th home run, this one with a man on.

“I’d already hit into two double plays--it was time to do something,” said Davis, who also guided Cub starter Steve Trout through six shutout innings.

“We haven’t been able to win three in a row for a long time. Maybe we’ll do it this weekend, maybe on the next trip.

“But we’re playing a lot better, which makes it a lot more fun.”

The Dodgers were just getting used to the feeling.

“One of these games,” Welch said, “I’m going to win again.”

Dodger Notes Dodger rookie Jose Gonzalez started in center field against Cub left-hander Steve Trout, with Ken Landreaux (3 for 22) sitting down. Gonzalez struck out and walked before being lifted for Landreaux when the Cubs made a pitching change. Landreaux had a scratch double over the head of Cub third baseman Ron Cey and grounded out. . . . Trout (4-3) broke a string of eight consecutive no-decisions. Cub Manager Gene Michael had talked of sending Trout to the bullpen. . . . Ex-Dodger Ted Sizemore suffered a mild heart attack, according to a Dodger official, and is resting in a St. Louis hospital. . . . Dodger third baseman Bill Madlock made the best defensive play of the day for the Dodgers, robbing Shawon Dunston of a hit with a diving catch.