Cubs Send Dodgers Reeling Again, 9-4

Comebacks come and comebacks go, and some comebacks go headfirst into brick walls, like the walls that encircle Wrigley Field here.

The Dodgers of 1986, not to be confused--yet, anyway--with the Dodger comebackers of ‘82, ’83 or ‘85, were spun around again by the Chicago Cubs, losing, 9-4, Saturday after taking an 8-3 beating Friday.

The hope engendered by a four-game winning streak has been replaced with the realization that the Dodgers are back in last place. They must win today just to return home with a better-than-.500 record on this 10-game trip.

Chicago may be far behind the New York Mets in the National League East, but put them in the West and they’d only be a game behind the Dodgers.

The Cubs put away Rick Honeycutt early Saturday, scoring almost as many earned runs (seven) against the Dodger left-hander in 2 innings as he had allowed in his previous five starts combined (eight).

“My stuff was good, but you don’t beat the law of averages,” Honeycutt said, apparently believing that the pounding he took was ordained. “It just wasn’t meant to be. I can’t dwell on it.”

Better for Honeycutt not to dwell, either, on his earned-run average, which rose by more than half a point--from 2.15 to 2.74.

Honeycutt’s blood pressure may have risen even higher in the Cubs’ three-run second, when he gave up three runs after two were out and the bases empty.

Manny Trillo singled, Shawon Dunston hit an infield chopper that Bill Madlock vainly tried to grab on the short hop, and most grievous of all, Cub pitcher Dennis Eckersley lined a two-run, opposite-field double to right. After another infield hit, Honeycutt threw a wild pitch for another run.

“Hey, if I get the pitcher out, we’re out of the inning,” he said. “How he hit it, where he hit it, doesn’t matter. I’m upset, but I’ll put it behind me.”

He fell even further behind in the third, when Trillo hit a bases-loaded double for two more runs, prompting Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda to trot out his left-handed version of the Curly Shuffle: Diaz, Vandy and Denny.

Carlos Diaz, appearing for the third time in three games, replaced Honeycutt and gave up a two-run double to Dunston, the first batter he faced. The runs were charged to Honeycutt, but the line on Diaz for his last three efforts is: 3 innings, 5 runs, 8 hits.

Next was Ed Vande Berg, who in the fifth gave up a two-run homer to Dunston, the Cub shortstop who furnished considerable evidence that he can hit as well as throw.

Dunston managed only to fly out to the warning track against the final Dodger reliever of the day, Dennis Powell, and finished with three hits and four runs batted in.

Powell managed to go three innings without being scored upon. But he also managed to fit a wild pitch, a balk and a hit batsman into the sixth inning. And a run would have scored if Ron Cey had been quick enough to skip out of the way of an off-target pitch with a runner on third.

It was 9-1 in the fifth, the Dodger run coming in the second on singles by Len Matuszek and Mike Scioscia and a towering sacrifice fly by Greg Brock, making his first start since knee surgery last month.

In the sixth, Brock hit his first home run since June 4, when he had a stretch of four home runs in four games. Rookie Jeff Hamilton hit his second big league home run in the seventh, giving him two home runs in his last two at-bats.

Every home run Brock hits is bound to fuel interest among teams aware that they may trade him when Pedro Guerrero returns.

“When you have no control over what people are saying, there’s nothing you can do but go out and play,” Brock said.

The Dodgers, of course, continue to play in hopes that history repeats itself and they take the comeback route once more. But it’s not that easy, said Cey, a veteran of the ’82 Dodger team that made up 11 games in 12 days against the Atlanta Braves, only to lose the division on the last day of the season.

“They could make that ground up--they’re close enough that anything can happen,” Cey said. “In the realm of possibility, that exists. . . .

“But (Mike) Marshall’s got to be healthy, you have to hope Guerrero can come back, everything has to be in order by the time that (a comeback) happens. Everything has to be in the right place at the right time.

“It can happen. That’s the only attitude you can have. . . . Once you lose faith, it’s a foregone conclusion.”

For the Cubs, it’s a foregone conclusion that many of them won’t be back, especially with team president Dallas Green publicly expressing the wish to bid adieu to most of his payroll.

A couple of days ago, Green said he wanted to unload pitchers Eckersley, Rick Sutcliffe and Steve Trout, but there wasn’t much interest.

“Maybe somebody will take us as a DH if they don’t want us as pitchers,” Sutcliffe cracked to Eckersley in the Cub clubhouse.

Saturday, Green went on the radio and mentioned outfielders Gary Matthews, who had three hits Saturday, and Jerry Mumphrey, who had two the day before, as logical candidates to go.

“This game’s not fun when you’re 23 games out,” Eckersley said. “During the game there’s a lot of pressure, especially when you’ve got Dallas Green hooting on you and hovering over you.

“That’s tough to deal with. When you’ve been in the big leagues for 12 years, it’s tough to sleep when you have someone hovering over you.”

Dodger Notes

Ron Cey said that after talking to Pedro Guerrero, he wouldn’t be surprised if Guerrero waited until next season before attempting a comeback from his ruptured patellar tendon, even though Guerrero told him he hoped to come back next month after sitting out since April 3. “If he tries to go out there before he’s ready to play, there will be pressure not only to perform but pressure not to get re-injured,” Cey said, “because the next time it goes may be the final time.” If the Dodgers get closer in the National League West race, “then maybe,” Cey said, Guerrero would return. “But if they don’t make up much ground, they may sit back and tell him, ‘We’re going to try to make it without you,’ ” Cey added. . . . Guerrero, asked by a Times reporter for a moment of his time, refused comment and walked away, muttering. To Gordon Verrell of the Long Beach Press-Telegram, Guerrero said: “Only I know when I feel I can play. I feel pretty good right now.” . . . Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda, asked about Cey’s comments, said: “I got to believe Pete’s going to be back before the season is over. I think he’ll be back next week. I’m hoping.” The Dodgers return home Monday to play the San Francisco Giants. It’s the first of 20 games they will play against the Giants, Reds and Astros, three of the four teams ahead of them in the West. . . . Cub pitcher Rick Sutcliffe, who has been on the disabled list with a bad shoulder, expects to return any time now. About a published statement by team President Dallas Green that he would like to trade Sutcliffe, the 1984 Cy Young Award winner, Sutcliffe said: “He says a lot of things. He says one thing to the papers and another thing to your face, although lately we haven’t had a whole lot to talk about. If he wanted to trade me, he would come and get my no-trade (clause, which gives Sutcliffe right of refusal). Most general managers would take that first step, wouldn’t they? He’s done some strange things.” . . . Despite being out of the race since the first of May, the Cubs have drawn an average crowd of 30,426 in the first nine games of a home stand that ends today. . . . Lynn Brener, wife of Dodger publicist Steve Brener, gave birth to an eight-pound, three-ounce boy, Daniel Thomas Brener. “Daniel who?” said traveling secretary Billy DeLury, standing in Lasorda’s office. “Daniel Boone,” Bill Russell said, joining in the teasing of Lasorda, who is close to Brener. Said DeLury: “They should have named him Peter Thomas, then everybody would have been covered.” Cracked one reporter: “And nickname him The Chief.” . . . The references, of course, are to Dodger President Peter O’Malley and Vice President Al Campanis.