Dodgers Can’t Slow Met March : Lasorda Tries a New Infielder, Gets Old Result

The Mets auditioned their new video Friday night. The Dodgers auditioned their still-new third baseman and a new older first baseman.

The Mets counted another game off their magic number--it’s 15 now. The Dodgers counted down another game to the end of the season.

Met left-hander Bob Ojeda, little better than a .500 pitcher before this season, luxuriated in the pleasure of pitching for a team 44 games over .500 and got his 15th win, 2-1, before a Shea Stadium crowd of 45,667, which saw a new four-minute video, “Let’s Go, Mets,” played for the first time on the stadium’s Diamondvision screen.

Dodger left-hander Rick Honeycutt, a .500 pitcher this season, stewed in the frustration of pitching for a team that has won in New York as often as an unsuspecting tourist suckered into a sidewalk shell game. It hasn’t happened yet this season.

The Dodgers lost their eighth straight game to the Mets, fourth in Shea Stadium, even though Honeycutt took the swagger right out of the Met attack.

But with the heart cut out of the Dodger offense, it didn’t matter. Ojeda, the 1986 version of John Tudor (a so-so pitcher who has been virtually unbeatable since coming to the National League from Boston), shut out the Dodgers on three hits until the ninth inning, when they scored an unearned run.

“We just wear people down with our talent,” said Met catcher Ed Hearn, whose talent--not to mention his opinion--would have gone unnoticed if All-Star catcher Gary Carter hadn’t gone out with a thumb injury a couple of weeks ago.

“If it’s not one thing,” Hearn said, “it’s another. If we don’t pitch you to death, we hit you. The talent’s just there from all angles.

“It’s like playing best-ball golf. One guy plays good one hole, and the next guy picks him up on the next hole. If you do that, you could even push Palmer and Nicklaus around.”

Against the Dodgers, all it took was a nudge. The Mets scored their first run on Mookie Wilson’s leadoff double, a ground out and Keith Hernandez’s infield hit in the first.

The league’s most dominating offensive team--which twice put runners on base after swinging third strikes-- really turned it loose against Honeycutt in the seventh: a swinging bunt single by No. 8 hitter Rafael Santana, a sacrifice bunt by Ojeda, and Wilson’s ground-ball single through the left side.

But that’s all it took against the Dodgers, who have now lost 30 of 55 one-run games and have scored just nine runs in their last four games.

“That’s just the way it is right now,” Honeycutt said resignedly. “You’ve got to play the game the way it is.”

Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda tried playing a new combination Friday, sending the ranking third baseman, Bill Madlock, across the diamond to first and leaving rookie Jeff Hamilton at third.

Madlock, who estimated he played about 25 games at first in Pittsburgh, said he didn’t mind the switch.

“I’m an old guy,” said Madlock, who’ll be blowing out 36 candles on Jan. 12. “I’ll play anywhere.

“I won’t ask for two Mercedes though, like Amos Otis did when he was asked to switch.”

Hamilton, 23 next March, has drawn good notices in his 19 big-league games at third. And he did again Friday, even though he went hitless in four trips and struck out twice.

“He’s going to be an outstanding third baseman,” Lasorda said. “It all depends on how he goes with the bat . . . if he starts to hit like we think he can.”

As solid as Hamilton has been defensively, he figured in two plays that proved costly in the seventh. On Ojeda’s bunt, he had trouble digging the ball out of his glove and threw late to second base in an effort to catch Santana.

Then, after Wilson’s single, Hamilton cut off the throw to the plate by left-fielder Bill Russell.

“It would have been close,” catcher Mike Scioscia said of the play at the plate that never materialized.

“I think Jeff realizes now that he can let that ball go through.”

When Honeycutt walked the next batter, Tim Teufel, to load the bases, he was replaced by Dennis Powell. And Hamilton turned a double play, fielding Hernandez ground ball down the line, stepping on the bag and firing to Madlock.

“When he makes mistakes, he takes them personally,” Madlock said. “He acts like he’s the first one ever to make a mistake. You can’t do that in the big leagues and be successful.

“But then he turned around and made the double play to get us out of the inning.”

A minor victory, perhaps, but the only kind the Dodgers are celebrating these days.

Dodger Notes In a curious turnabout, the Dodgers announced that pitcher Carlos Diaz, who was scheduled to rejoin the team from minor-league Albuquerque on Tuesday, would not be back after all this season. And, in an oddly worded announcement, the Dodgers said that injured outfielder Mike Marshall had told team trainers that he was no longer available to hit for an indefinite period, until his back condition is improved. First, about Diaz: Dodger Vice President Al Campanis, who is accompanying the team on this trip, said that he changed his mind because the Dodgers already were well-stocked in the bullpen with the addition of Brian Holton, even though Tom Niedenfuer remains on the disabled list. It was strictly a numbers decision, Campanis said. Diaz, 1-4 since being sent down to Albuquerque, was caught by surprise by the Dodgers’ decision. “You’ll have to ask them,” Diaz said by telephone from Phoenix, where the Dukes were playing Friday. “I thought I was coming. Maybe I took it for granted. I just found out about it. I don’t think I’m in the doghouse. Maybe they think they have enough pitchers.”