Pirates Shanghai Honeycutt, 7-2 : Dodger Pitcher Gets All the Help He’s Going to Get in First

Once again, Dodger hitters bagged their meager limit of runs against the Pittsburgh Pirates by the end of the first inning on Sunday, leaving starting pitcher Rick Honeycutt little room for error as he embarked on another perilous quest for a long-sought victory.

Honeycutt, winless since mid-May, clung like a barnacle to that early two-run lead, only to have the corrosion process take hold in the early innings and eventually watch it dissolve into a 7-2 Pirate win before a crowd of 37,548 at Dodger Stadium.

This latest sparse offensive output, coupled with less than perfect pitching and a few dubious defensive plays, led to the Dodgers’ second straight loss and extended Honeycutt’s club-record losing streak to nine.

The Dodgers may not be hitting much these days, but at least they are consistent. They managed only two first-inning runs on a Pedro Guerrero home run against Doug Drabek on Saturday night, then again scored only two on a Guerrero single against Mike Dunne on Sunday.

Silence at the plate usually leads to silence in the clubhouse, and the postgame scene Sunday was no exception. The Dodgers, last in the National League in runs scored and batting average, are at a loss to explain their prolonged slump.

“All you can do is keep hoping we start producing,” Manager Tom Lasorda said. “It’s the same thing. We have a chance to win games, but we aren’t producing.”

A lack of offense has been the most troublesome of all the Dodgers’ problems this season. And, barring the recently speculated trade for Baltimore slugger Eddie Murray, it looks as if the Dodgers will continue to rely on Guerrero and not much else for the rest of a dry summer.

Honeycutt has felt the full effects of the scoring drought. In his 10 losses this season, the Dodgers have scored just 14 runs. But Honeycutt is not alone among Dodger pitchers, given the fact that the club is a pitiful 6-39 when they scored four runs or less.

“I might not be in the same class as Fernando (Valenzuela), Orel (Hershiser) or Bob Welch, but if you give me three or four runs a game then I’ll give you a good game and a chance to win,” Honeycutt said. “But that’s part of the game. I know that.

“I’ll admit it. This is one of the things I got to get over. I’ve got to stop pitching defensively, stop waiting for bad things to happen. No matter what the score is, you still got to stop the other team. That’s my job.”

While Honeycutt’s record went reeling to 2-10, Dunne improved his to 5-4 and came within one out of his first major-league complete game. Sunday’s win probably was the best outing of Dunne’s season, not counting his shutout of the Dodgers’ Triple-A team in Albuquerque in May.

Except for shaky first and ninth innings, Dunne probably couldn’t find much difference between the Dodger farm team and their major league counterparts. At one point in the early innings, Dunne retired 11 straight Dodgers.

Dunne gave up six hits, three to Mickey Hatcher, but the Dodgers could not string them together to mount a serious rally.

“We’re not getting consistent hitting,” Hatcher said. “We’ve got to go out there and produce runs any way we can. When I go up to the plate, I’m just trying for a single and to get on base. I don’t know what goes through the minds of the other guys. Maybe they are (trying too hard).”

Hatcher was asked if he could read what must have gone through the mind of Honeycutt, charged with 4 runs and 8 hits in 6 innings.

He shook his head and said: “I know that if we give (Honeycutt) six runs to work with, he’ll be awesome. He’s a great pitcher. I think our pitchers sometimes try to hard to make up for us when we don’t score runs.”

Pittsburgh first got to Honeycutt in the third inning, when John Cangelosi doubled to left, then stole third and later scored on Terry Harper’s single.

That made it Dodgers, 2-1, and Honeycutt’s chances for a win were over in the sixth inning when the Pirates pushed across another run on two infield singles, a throwing error and then Bobby Bonilla’s two-out double to left that Guerrero misplayed.

Honeycutt’s undoing came in the seventh inning, when the Pirates plundered the Dodgers for four runs. Honeycutt gave up an infield single to Cangelosi and then a run-scoring double to Al Pedrique, making it 3-2, Pirates. Reliever Brian Holton took over.

A bases-loaded bloop single by Mike Diaz scored two more runs and center fielder John Shelby’s throwing error on a play at home let in another run.

The light-hitting Cangelosi completed his offensive assault on Dodger pitching by hitting his first home run of the season off Brad Havens in the eighth, giving the Pirates a 7-2 lead. With two out in the bottom of the ninth and most of the crowd on the freeways, the Dodgers staged their most promising rally of the afternoon. Typically, it fizzled.

Singles by Hatcher and Mike Scioscia and a walk to Mariano Duncan prompted Dunne’s departure. He was replaced by left-handed reliever John Smiley, who struck out pinch-hitter Alex Trevino to end the game.

Lasorda was unusually subdued, given the events of the day. He praised the Dodgers’ effort and said there is little he can do but wait out the drought.

“There isn’t anybody who tries any harder than those guys in there (the clubhouse),” Lasorda said. “It’s frustrating to them because they are trying. If I thought there was no effort, I’d be worried.”

But, if the Dodgers are consistently putting forth the effort and consistently floundering at the plate, does that mean that the Dodgers simply aren’t capable of hitting any better?

“That depends on how you look at it,” Lasorda said. “I’m still hoping they’re going to get the runs.”

Dodger Notes

Steve Sax’s wife, Debbie, gave birth to a 7-pound, 19-inch girl, Lauren Ashley, Sunday afternoon at Little Company of Mary Hospital in Torrance. Sax, who was bothered by a sore right shoulder and probably would not have played Sunday, was at the hospital with his wife Sunday and not at Dodger Stadium. . . . Rick Honeycutt on whether he ever considered the possibility of having a 2-10 record at this point in the season: “Not in my wildest dreams would I envision that on anybody, especially myself. I’m pitching OK. My strikeouts (74) are up, walks are down (33). Up until the last few starts, my hits to innings pitched (ratio, 106 hits in 97 innings) was good.” . . . For the second straight game, the Dodgers had a chance to overtake the Atlanta Braves for fourth place in the National League West but failed. . . . The Dodgers are off today and open a three-game series against National League East leader St. Louis Tuesday at Dodger Stadium.