Phillies Steal Show in 6-3 Win : Hitters Like What They See of Pena; Dodger Streak at 6

If part of the purpose of Alejandro Pena’s start for the Dodgers Thursday night was to showcase his pitching ability to an interested team, as widely speculated, then the Philadelphia Phillies couldn’t have liked much of what they saw.

Then again, if the Phillies are no longer in a trading mood, as Philadelphia vice president Bill Giles has indicated, then they had to like the way they knocked around Pena in a 6-3 win over the Dodgers before 13,639 at Veterans Stadium.

Either way, the Dodgers couldn’t have been too happy about another evening of futility. The rain that washed out games the last two nights passed on Thursday, but the Dodgers’ slide rolled on to a season-high sixth consecutive defeat. All the rain did was delay the Dodgers’ frustration.

The formula for this loss basically was the same as the five previous ones--stunted offensive production and weak pitching. The exception this time was that the noticeable defensive blunders were missing.

With Pena getting racked for 5 runs on 8 hits (including home runs by Jeff Stone and Juan Samuel) in 5 innings, the Dodgers needed to jump-start their sputtering offense. Instead, it ground to a halt once more.

In the third inning, the Dodgers had runners on second and third with one out and did not score. In the sixth, they had runners and first and second with no outs and did not score. And in the seventh, they had runners on first and second with no outs and scored only one run--on a fielder’s choice.

“We just couldn’t cash in,” Manager Tom Lasorda said. “When you put men on base in scoring position, that’s the good point. The bad point is when you don’t drive them in.

“That guy who pitched against us tonight (Shane Rawley), normally he looks pretty good against us. But tonight, I didn’t think he looked good. He skated through six innings with just three runs (two earned).”

The Dodger offense made it easier for Rawley to improve his record to 4-2 and for Steve Bedrosian to earn his seventh save. The Dodgers had nine hits, but not much to show for them.

Pena’s showing, meanwhile, did little to improve his standing either on the trading block--the Phillies apparently don’t want to part with center fielder Milt Thompson, anyway--or in the Dodgers’ starting rotation.

Pena (0-4) has not lasted beyond six innings this season and has yielded an inordinately high amount of home runs (6). Philadelphia’s Luis Aguayo added a third in the eighth off Brian Holton.

While Pena remains baffled by his shaky outings and pitching coach Ron Perranoski tries to correct what he called “just a few major mistakes,” has Lasorda considered removing Pena from the rotation and replacing him with Tim Leary or Holton?

Pena says he isn’t worried about being displaced. Though he says he has fully recovered from major shoulder surgery in 1985, Pena clearly is not the pitcher he once was.

After Pena gave up a two-run home run to Stone in a three-run Phillie first inning, the Dodgers struck with their most explosive offensive outburst of a highly unproductive trip.

Pedro Guerrero led off the second with the his 10th home run, sending Rawley’s 2-and-0 fastball 417 feet into the center-field seats. Three pitches later, Mickey Hatcher also homered to left, though not with the power of Guerrero.

But any Dodger hope of a resumption of power was squelched by several blown opportunities.

With the exception of Guerrero, who raised his average to .348 with two hits, and Hatcher, who also had two hits, the middle of the order is struggling.

Third baseman Bill Madlock, back for two weeks now after early April shoulder surgery, isn’t the only Dodger struggling, just the most prominent. Madlock, hitting .190 after going 0 for 4 and stranding four runners in scoring position on Thursday, says he lacks timing at the plate after his long layoff.

Franklin Stubbs (3 for 16) and Mariano Duncan (who broke an 0 for 21 streak with a double Thursday) are also struggling at the plate.

Dodger Notes

The Dodgers have hired John Roseboro, a catcher on three Dodger championship teams, as a minor league catching instructor. Roseboro, 54, who owns a public relations firm in Beverly Hills, will work with minor league players for three months, the Dodgers said. During spring training, Roseboro, who is black, talked with the Angels and Dodgers about joining their front office. “I don’t think (the Al Campanis racial remarks) hurt my chances or chances of any black person to get a job,” Roseboro said Thursday from his Los Angeles home. “But it’s not going to change at a snap of the fingers. I had talked to the Dodgers before any of that happened. I the talked came on a little more after (Campanis’ firing). My goal is to be in a major-league front office. But now, I just want to be back in baseball. I’ve been out too long. And I’m happy to be back.” . . . The Dodgers now have two black minor league instructors--Roseboro and batting coach Tommy Davis. Von Joshua is a black coach at the Dodgers’ Double-A club in San Antonio, and Bobby Darwin is the only black scout employed by the club.