State of the Dodgers : Despite It All, They’re Still in Race

Controversy may not become the image-conscious Dodgers, but to the surprise of some--and the relief of those in the organization--it has not buried them in the National League West standings.

Not yet, anyway.

That is about the best you can say about the Dodgers 62 games into a season memorable so far only for all that has gone wrong.

The Dodgers, 29-33 and losers of four of their last five games, will slink into San Diego tonight in fifth place, 5 1/2 games behind the division-leading Cincinnati Reds.

But the Dodgers, with 100 games remaining, maintain that their condition is hardly fatal, that they can put aside their controversial tendencies and persevere.

Headlines, to be sure, have not been kind to this club.

All of April was clouded by the Al Campanis incident. May was dampened by veteran third baseman Bill Madlock’s noisy and acrimonious trade request, which naturally occurred in the midst of a seven-game losing streak.

And last week, whispered accusations of malingering against right fielder Mike Marshall came into the open, resulting in angry words between Marshall and teammate Pedro Guerrero, his accuser.

There has been considerable speculation that Marshall, obviously unhappy about his situation, has asked to be traded. Marshall won’t talk about it, and neither Fred Claire, the Dodger vice president, nor Jerry Kapstein, Marshall’s agent, will confirm that it has been discussed.

But Bob Teaff, a colleague of Kapstein, said Monday that Claire and Kapstein will meet here either today or Wednesday. Teaff would not discuss the topic of conversation.

Dodger management has tried to defuse the incident, saying that such things happen to the best of teams.

“So what if they don’t like each other,” Manager Tom Lasorda said, referring to the Marshall-Guerrero confrontation. “Not everybody’s always going to get along, just like it would be at work or in your family. Geez, you should have been here is 1977. We were constantly battling.

“I see what’s happened this year--you know, the thing with Al and that other stuff--as a distraction. That’s for sure. These things happen to teams all the time. It’s no big deal.”

Certainly, the controversies have diverted some attention from the more conventional on-field problems that need to be solved if the team is to be successful in the remaining 100 games.

It may be easier to list what is not wrong with the Dodgers. That would limit it to two areas: Starting pitching and Guerrero’s play.

Dodger pitching, thanks mainly to four solid starters, leads the National League with a 3.70 earned-run average, and complete games (12). Yet, Fernando Valenzuela’s record is 5-5, Rick Honeycutt’s is 2-5 and Orel Hershiser’s is 7-6.

Guerrero, who has played in 60 of the 62 games, is hitting .341 with 15 home runs and 45 runs batted in. His consistent hitting, and improved outfield play, show that he has recovered from last season’s serious knee injury.

What has not changed is, basically, most everything else.

The bullpen and defense, though improved lately, often revert to their disastrous 1986 form. Dodger relievers are last in the league with 11 saves, which would rank them no higher than sixth on the individual save list. The Dodgers rank seventh in errors, a slight improvement over last season, but not enough to really make a difference.

Offense has been the club’s downfall in many of the poor stretches, including the recent slide. To explain, Lasorda falls back on injuries. Marshall’s loss for 24 of the 62 games has been the strongest felt--on and off the field.

In games in which both Marshall and Guerrero have been in the starting lineup, the Dodgers are 16-16. When either of them has not started, the team is 12-17, and the Dodgers lost the only game in which both were out.

Does that suggest that the Dodgers are only a .500 team even with their two sluggers?

Lasorda says no. As evidence, he brings up 1985, when the Dodgers last won the West Division title.

“Those two guys in ’85 hit 62 home runs between them,” Lasorda said. “And Marshall missed 29 games that year.

“If I’m pitching against our ball club and you’re facing Pete, who can hit the ball out of the park with consistency, and I’ve got Marshall hitting behind Pete, you’re going to say, ‘Hey, I can’t walk this guy because the next guy can hit it out of the park with consistency, too.’

“But if Marshall’s not there, the guy hitting behind Pete can’t do that. We don’t have any other power hitters. That’s why they pitch around Pete, and that’s why Pete sometimes gets frustrated.”

Disharmony remains a problem, however, despite Lasorda’s contention that it is harmless.

Interviewed again Sunday, Marshall said that teammates other than Guerrero question the severity of his injuries, which this season have included back, hand and thigh problems.

“Sure, that incident will go away,” Marshall said. “But the attitude won’t. It’s not my attitude toward the other people here. It’s their attitude toward me.”

Claire says he wants to leave behind the Marshall-Guerrero incident. He will not discuss, even in general terms, Marshall’s feelings or his market value to teams interested in a trade. “My feeling is that Mike is a very important part of this team,” Claire said. “I know he will contribute.

“Ideally, you’d want 24 players who like one another. I don’t know if there are too many offices or groups of people that (exist) in perfect harmony. I think we’ve fought through all the problems we’ve had so far. We’re still in a position we can strike from.

“We’ve hung through some really rough moments, and the team I see out there is one with outstanding pitching and all the ingredients to be a very good and competitive ballclub.”

The Dodgers also seem to have the ingredients to be combative, among themselves. But Lasorda says that the media blows up the clubhouse blowups.

“One day years ago in San Diego, I let (Joe) Ferguson pinch-hit in the 10th inning,” Lasorda said. “Now, I’m torn between sitting Joe on the bench and going with one catcher or putting him in right field. I put him in right and he loses the ball in the sun in the 12th inning and we lose.

“So, I come in after the game, and I’m screaming. He says, ‘What are you screaming at me for?’

“I said, ‘I didn’t say anything to you. I’m just (upset) because we lost the game.’

“All of a sudden, the media says me and Fergy had a fight. By 6 o’clock that night, I left the ballpark and Fergy gave me a ride . . . and we ate dinner together that night.”

Even Lasorda admits that there probably won’t be a dinner party pairing off Marshall and Guerrero, or Lasorda and Madlock.

“Every season, you’re going to have certain (bad) things happen to you,” Lasorda said. “But you just got to keep going forward.”

That may be difficult if the Dodgers keep sliding back in the standings.

Len Matuszek, the Dodger utility man who has been on the disabled list since May 1 with torn tissue on the bottom of his left foot, will undergo surgery to repair problems in his left ankle, which apparently developed during his rehabilitation. Matuszek was examined Monday by Dr. William Wagner, a foot specialist, in Whittier. Matuszek will have the operation late this week or early next week. He is expected to be out for at least six weeks after the operation.

The Dodgers said that although Matuszek’s original foot problem has improved, a bone on the inner side of his left ankle is pressing against a nerve, causing pain.

The Dodgers probably won’t make any roster moves for at least a week. Last week, they signed free agent utility man Danny Heep, who is working into shape with the club’s Double-A team in San Antonio.