Dodgers Pile Up 4 Losses During 28-Hour Period

For those who don’t suffer from insomnia and couldn’t quite make it through all of Tuesday night’s long-running second game here, yes, the Dodgers did lose both games of that doubleheader to the St. Louis Cardinals.

Those losses, the second of which ran into early morning, set up the unusual possibility Wednesday night that the Dodgers could lose three games in one calendar day and four in a 28-hour period.

Even for the Dodgers, floundering as they are, that would be some kind of dubious achievement.

As another long evening at Busch Stadium unfolded, the Dodgers ended up experiencing that embarrassing distinction. The Cardinals, behind Jack Clark’s three-run home run off Fernando Valenzuela, won the first game, 6-3.

And despite an impressive comeback in the second game, the Dodgers lost, 8-7, to the Cardinals in 10 innings to complete an utterly demoralizing series against the Cardinals.

The Dodgers wanted to win Game 2 Wednesday night so badly they brought in Orel Hershiser, scheduled to start Friday in Chicago, to pitch the 10th inning after Ken Howell threw three scoreless innings.

But Terry Pendleton’s bases-loaded single, which went under Mickey Hatcher’s glove at first base, scored Tony Pena from third to make the Dodgers four-time losers in this city.

“It’s just a matter of getting out of this damn town,” said Hatcher, who was screened by runner Vince Coleman at first base and did not get a good view on the grounder. “This has been rough.

“I’d never played so late at night, 3 a.m.,” he said, referring to the previous night’s doubleheader, “and I don’t want to do it again.”

In Wednesday night’s second game, the Dodgers lost by one run for the third time in four games. Tuesday night’s (or Wednesday morning’s) second game was a 5-4 loss in 10 innings. The score of the first game that night was also 5-4.

But Dodger spirits were brightened by the fact that the St. Louis segment of the trip is over and the club now heads for Chicago for four games before the All-Star break.

Can it get worse in Chicago?

“It’s tough to shake, what happened to us here,” said Howell, the loser of Tuesday night’s second game. “But we can’t take this to Chicago with us. If we do, it’ll happen to us all over again. Maybe we’ll win three of four there, and hopefully, this nightmare will end.” It continued unabated Wednesday night.

“We battled back, got seven runs and we still don’t win,” Manager Tom Lasorda said. “What can you do? We lost three one-run games.”

The only routine game in the series was the first one Wednesday.

From both an aesthetic and performance viewpoint, the three-run loss in the opener was a vast improvement over Tuesday night’s two debacles.

But this one might have been more worrisome because Valenzuela was knocked around for five runs for the second straight start.

What began as a strong effort by Valenzuela--he did not allow a hit through three innings--began eroding in the fourth and compleely fell apart in the fifth.

St. Louis showed its versatility in those innings, using their renowned speed and timely hitting for two runs in the fourth and then unleashing Clark and their powerful side in the four-run fifth.

With one out in the fourth, Tommy Herr doubled down the right-field line. After Clark walked, Willie McGee popped up for the second out. But then singles by Terry Pendleton and Jim Lindeman scored Herr and Clark, respectively, for a 2-0 lead.

Valenzuela still seemed in control entering the fifth. Then Clark, who had a home run washed out by rain Monday night, delivered a three-run home run into the upper deck in left field.

The Cardinal publicity staff measured the home run shot at 412 feet, but it still was rising when it hit the seats. Whatever the length, it gave the Cardinals a 5-0 lead.

Not long after the fireworks celebrating Clark’s 25th home run stopped and the prolonged ovation subsided, it started again when Willie McGee hit a home run to left. That made it 6-0, St. Louis.

Valenzuela made it out of the fifth but called it a night after that. It was the second straight start that he had given up five earned runs in five innings.

Pitching coach Ron Perranoski said Valenzuela was pulled not because he was tired or his arm or shoulder was sore, but because they might use him Sunday against Chicago instead of Bob Welch.

“Actually, I thought he threw pretty well,” Perranoski said. “He had a good braking ball today, but he just didn’t get the ball inside enough on Clark. That’s three runs right there. All six runs came with two outs.”

Perhaps inspired by the exhibition of strength by Clark and McGee, the Dodgers staged a rare homer outburst in the late innings against Cardinal starter Bob Forsch and reliever Todd Worrell.

Mike Marshall led off the seventh with a home run to left-center, his seventh of the season. One out later, hot-hitting Mickey Hatcher homered to left, cutting the deficit to 6-2. That was followed by two straight walks, necessitating Forsch’s exit. Reliever Ken Dayley entered and promptly snuffed out the rally.

Worrell was summoned in the eighth and gave up a solo home run to Pedro Guerrero, narrowing the margin to 6-3. But that shot, Guerrero’s 17th home run of the season, was it for the Dodgers in the first game.

“Yeah, we hit a couple of home runs,” Marshall said, “but we still lost and we still have a lot of problems to work out.”

While it took the Cardinals two innings to amass six runs in the first game, they repeated it in only one explosive inning--the second--against Welch in Game 2.

The Cardinals sent 11 batters to the plate in the rally, the key hits being Terry Pendleton’s three-run double and a run-scoring double by Curt Ford, who started it all with a leadoff single. All told, the Cardinals had four hits off Welch and were issued four walks by him.

That erased a very brief 1-0 Dodger lead in the top of the second. Hatcher, who had two hits in the first game, led off with a double and scored on Alex Trevino’s single.

After St. Louis’ six-run second, the Dodgers began gnawing away at the lead. It was 7-2 after four innings, and then the Dodgers struck with consecutive home runs for the fourth time this season in the sixth inning, off starter Dave LaPoint.

The unlikely home run combination Wednesday consisted of Trevino and Mariano Duncan, both of whom sent shots to left. That made it 7-4, Cardinals. After John Shelby doubled, the Cardinals replaced LaPoint with Bill Dawley, who got Guerrero to fly to left to end the inning.

But in the seventh, Dawley was hit hard as pinch-hitters Franklin Stubbs and Mike Scioscia drove in runs with hits to slash the once-comfortable five-run lead to 7-6.

Then Dave Anderson tied it, 7-7, with a single up the middle, scoring Scioscia from third. But it all went for naught.

Dodger Notes

As promised, Dodger Vice President Fred Claire is considering more player moves to try to change the club’s dismal fortunes. Claire has talked with free-agent outfielder Tito Landrum, released Saturday by the Cardinals. Claire reportedly also has had negotiations with the Chicago White Sox about a trade involving disgruntled Dodger outfielder Mike Marshall. The Dodgers are said to be interested in outfielders Ivan Calderon, Darryl Boston or Gary Redus. Mel Didier, a Dodger scout who followed Baltimore for several weeks before the John Shelby-Tom Niedenfuer trade, has been assigned to watch the White Sox. Claire would not comment on the apparent trade discussions. “That no comment I gave is not to indicate anything is going on,” Claire said. . . . The pitchers for next Tuesday’s All-Star Game are scheduled to be announced today, and Orel Hershiser of the Dodgers is expected to be named. . . . The Dodgers gave an out-of-work pitcher a tryout before Wednesday’s doubleheader. His name is Lester Strode, a left-hander who once pitched in the Kansas City organization.