Big Astro Comeback Is Setback : Dodgers Blow Late Three-Run Lead, Now Trail by Eight Games

The team of a thousand comebacks met the team of a thousand comedowns Monday night, a match made in Astro heaven.

The Houston Astros, who never met a lead that couldn’t be overcome, beat the Dodgers, who never met a lead that couldn’t be blown, 7-6, scoring two runs in the eighth inning and two more on Alan Ashby’s two-run double off Ken Howell in the ninth, as a delirious crowd of 23,206 nearly set the Astrodome on its steel lamella roof.

The Astros have won 18 games this season in their last at-bat, but never before have they shot themselves so many times in the foot before winning.

They had to give one run back when base-runner Davey Lopes was struck by a batted ball, lost another when Dickie Thon and Terry Puhl tried to occupy third base at the same time, and then topped even that in the ninth inning by having a runner on second, Denny Walling, thrown out at the plate on what would have been a double to the wall in deepest center field.

All that, and the Astros still won.

The Dodgers, who have lost eight games in which they led going into the ninth, outdid themselves in designing their own demise. They missed fly balls in each of the last two innings, incredibly got someone out each time, and still managed to find a way to lose.

And when it was over, and Houston had increased its lead over third-place Los Angeles to 8 games with 50 to play, the Astros danced to the accompaniment of Howell’s tears.

“This has to be the best comeback of all,” said Astro reliever Charlie Kerfeld, whose only appearance out of the bullpen was to hoist Ashby into the air after the Houston catcher’s double down the line in right.

“Beating L.A. when they knew they had to come in and sweep us, when they had plenty of chances to bury us and didn’t. . . . I think this could be our year of destination.”

Kerfeld meant destiny, of course, but destination--as in Western Division title--will do.

“I haven’t been playing that long--15 or 20 years--I’ve been on good teams and bad teams--Texas, Chicago, Pittsburgh--but I’ve nev-ah, nev-ah, nev-ah seen a game like this in my entire life,” said Dodger third baseman Bill Madlock, who had a hand in the Dodgers’ first four runs with a two-run homer in the first, a walk in the fourth, and a sacrifice fly in the seventh.

“I have a headache from this game. I’ve got a migraine. I’m serious. My head is just throbbing from this game.”

There was no need for aspirin earlier, when the Dodgers seemingly had so much going their way. With the game tied, 3-3, and Bob Welch in trouble in the sixth, Manager Tom Lasorda brazenly called upon reliever Ed Vande Berg, who hasn’t pitched in a pressure situation in more than five weeks since blowing an extra-inning game in Cincinnati.

With runners on first and third, Vande Berg got Ashby to line into a double play and struck out pinch-hitter Jim Pankovits, the first time in memory that Vande Berg had resembled Houdini instead of Whooz-its.

The Dodgers then appeared to have the better of the matchup in center field in the seventh, when their 21-year-old rookie, Jose Gonzalez, tripled as a pinch-hitter over the glove of the Astros’ 40-year-old center fielder, Lopes, who had to be the oldest player at that position since Willie Mays.

Gonzalez, who scored on Madlock’s sacrifice fly to make it 4-3, followed Bill Russell’s RBI single with another of his own in the eighth, making it, 6-3, and a rested bullpen of Tom Niedenfuer and Howell were at Lasorda’s disposal.

But Niedenfuer, who hadn’t pitched in five days, gave up his first home run in a month, to Jose Cruz in the eighth, and it was 6-4.

Ashby followed with a single, pinch-hitter Terry Puhl walked, and in came Howell.

The next batter, Thon, hit a long fly to right that Mike Marshall caught up with and tried to backhand, only to have the ball bounce off his glove. Ashby scored easily, but third base coach Denis Menke held Puhl at third, unbeknown to Thon, who also chugged into the bag. The Dodgers tagged out Puhl in a rundown, Lopes grounded out to end the inning, and the lead seemed safe.

But in this 3-hour 32-minute marathon, no lead was safe for a moment.

Howell got two quick strikes on Walling but then slapped his leg in frustration when Walling singled to right to open the ninth. Astro slugger Glenn Davis worked Howell to a full count, then walked.

Kevin Bass, who earlier extended his hitting streak to 18 games, longest in the league, followed with a fly ball to center that Reggie Williams--who had entered the game as a defensive replacement for Gonzalez, the Dodgers’ fastest outfielder--let go over his head.

Walling, however, had held up at second, intending to tag up and go to third. When he tried to score, Steve Sax made the relay of his life to nail him at the plate. The Dodger lead still held, but the Astros had runners on second and third.

An intentional walk to Cruz loaded the bases, bringing up the slow-footed Ashby, a likely candidate for a double play.

With a 1-and-2 count, Howell jammed him with a fastball, but Ashby stuck it right back at him with a soft liner down the line to right.

“Probably the ugliest winning ballgame you’re ever going to see,” Kerfeld said.

Ashby said he’s had a tough time with Howell in the past.

“He got right ahead of me in the count, I was able to foul a couple off, and then all of a sudden, he threw one up and in on me,” Ashby said.

“I got jammed pretty good. It wasn’t pretty, but it sure turned out beautiful.”

Not when the beholder was Howell, however.

“That was a game of guts right there,” said Howell, who had regained his composure by the time reporters had entered a moribund Dodger clubhouse.

“But the bottom line is if you keep giving them (the Astros) enough chances, they’re going to get you. You can be ahead of them by 20 runs in the ninth inning and they’ll still do all they can to beat you.

“I felt like I was in the World Series. I’ve never been there, but there was so much tension, excitement on the field. And so much noise.

“There may have been 24,000 people out there, but they sounded like 80. If there had been 50,000, I think my eardrums would have busted.”

Instead, it was Howell’s heart that broke.

“I think it’s one of those years,” said Lasorda, who chewed out his team for its terrible defense after the game.

An Astro-nomical year.

Dodger Notes

The Dodgers were hurt by the absence of shortstop Mariano Duncan, who was examined Monday by Astro doctor William Bryan and will be out of the lineup until at least Wednesday with what Bryan diagnosed as a strained ligament in his right knee. Dodger trainer Bill Buhler said Duncan’s status is listed as day-to-day, just as it was when Duncan missed nearly three weeks with a sprained ankle. . . . Dodger catcher Mike Scioscia and second baseman Steve Sax had a heated exchange in the dugout after the Dodgers came off the field in the seventh inning. According to one observer, Scioscia apparently had signaled for a play, Sax had missed the sign, and then when Scioscia confronted him about it, turned away from the Dodger catcher. . . . Davey Lopes has 551 career stolen bases, but he said this was the first time he’d ever been struck by a batted ball while attempting to steal. Lopes said he never looked to see where the ball was hit.