Dodgers Lose 6th Straight

In the end, after a couple of late-inning rallies, the Dodgers were much like their starting pitcher, Rick Honeycutt.

Left without a win, again. Make that stranded without a win.

Honeycutt, who pitched five innings, ended up with a no-decision, and he remains 2-10.

But the Dodgers’ streak continued. Their 6-4 loss to the Chicago Cubs Friday night before a crowd of 38,052 at Dodger Stadium was the Dodgers’ sixth straight defeat and 12th in 16 games, and it was due in part to stranding two runners on base in the seventh, two more in the eighth and one, the leadoff batter, in the ninth.

They had runners on second and third with one out in the seventh but failed to score as Dave Anderson struck out and Ken Landreaux flied to Rafael Palmeiro in left field.

In the eighth, there were Dodgers on first and second with one out before Mickey Hatcher fouled out to third base and Mike Scioscia grounded to shortstop.

And then, in the ninth, Steve Sax opened with a single to center but got only as far as second as pinch-hitter John Shelby struck out, and both Tito Landrum, another pinch-hitter, and Landreaux grounded out.

“If you want to break it down to late-inning rallies, yeah, it’s frustrating,” said Landreaux, who hit a home run and saved a Chicago run with his arm in his first start since May 27. “But I don’t think you can pinpoint anything like that. That’s not the reason we lost.”

So what is?

“They scored more runs than we did.”

Simple enough.

Chicago, meanwhile, got two home runs in the final three innings for the win. Andre Dawson hit No. 26, a two-run shot just beyond the right-field railing, to give the Cubs a 5-4 lead in the seventh, and Dave Martinez, who had entered the game as a pinch-hitter two innings earlier, hit No. 4 past the 395-foot sign in center field in the ninth.

The Cubs were in good hands with the lead, leaving the final 1 innings up to 6-foot 6-inch Lee Smith, who recorded his 24th save, second highest total in the National League.

“One thing that was working against me is that I hadn’t pitched in a week,” Smith said. “Gene (Michael, the Chicago manager) asked me when I came out if I found the mound OK.”

In his 12th start since last winning--on May 12 against the Cubs at Dodger Stadium--Honeycutt was staked to a rare 2-0 lead in the first inning as Mike Marshall hit a two-run homer into the left-field bleachers. Scoring ahead of Marshall was Anderson, who had singled, stolen second and taken third on a balk by Chicago pitcher Greg Maddux.

The Dodgers had scored only 14 runs in Honeycutt’s 10 losses this season.

Marshall’s home run, his 11th of the season, was his sixth hit in his last 14 appearances. Marshall now has a modest four-game hitting streak.

The Cubs came back to score one run in the third and two runs in the fifth to take a 3-2 lead. The two in the fifth came on a home run by Brian Dayett, the first of three by Chicago, with Ryne Sandberg aboard. And that finished Honeycutt, although not immediately. When the Dodgers batted in the bottom of the inning, Danny Heep was sent to pinch-hit.

With Sax on first base after an infield single, Heep failed to convert, hitting into a double play. But after Anderson drew a two-out walk, Landreaux, playing in place of the struggling John Shelby, came through with a home run to right field that gave the Dodgers back the lead at 4-3.

So, Honeycutt, who gave up three runs, seven hits and two walks in five innings, was still alive for a win at that point, because of Landreaux, who did more than just homer.

In the top of the sixth, with the Dodgers still holding their one-run lead, Manny Trillo opened with a double to left field and reached third base when Jody Davis grounded out to Sax at second. Then, Luis Quinones, hitting for Paul Noce, lifted a fly to center field, where Landreaux caught it and threw out Trillo trying to score.

“I’ll be back out there, plugging away,” Honeycutt said afterwards. “One of these times, I’m going to make fewer mistakes and end up with a W out there.”

Dodger Notes

John Shelby, stuck in an 0-for-22 slump since a career-high 13-game hitting streak July 1-16, was benched in favor of Ken Landreaux in center field. Shelby, who had previously played every inning since coming to the Dodgers from Baltimore in the May 22 Tom Niedenfuer trade, was batting .250 coming into Friday’s game. That included an 0-for-5 game against St. Louis Thursday, with two strikeouts, a foul-out to first and two ground outs. . . . After two straight games leading off, second baseman Steve Sax returned to the No. 8 spot in the lineup. In the two games, he went 2 for 9 with 1 run scored. . . . The Dodgers signed two amateur free agents, Carlos Milian of Hialeah, Fla., and Ryan Virgo of Madera, Calif. Both are right-handed pitchers. Virgo is a former All-Nothern California selection for Madera High School and also played for Fresno City College. . . . Farm Report: Jeff Hamilton hit his second home run in as many games Thursday for Albuquerque, the Triple-A affiliate. . . . The Dodgers will dedicate the remainder of the season to Don McMahon, the special-assignment scout who died Wednesday and, starting Monday, will have the name “Mac” on the left sleeve of their uniforms. . . . Chicago’s Rick Sutcliffe won his 100th career game Wednesday in San Diego, which makes him 78-51 since being traded from the Dodgers to Cleveland for Jorge Orta, Jack Fimple and Larry White before the 1982 season. That’s an average of 14.2 victories a year, even with the injury-plagued 5-14 in ’86. He is not scheduled to face his former team this homestand, which is also the final series of the year between the Cubs and Dodgers. . . . Chicago has hit home runs in 20 of its last 22 games, with a total of 33 in that time. . . . Although Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda was late announcing his starting pitcher for today’s 1:05 p.m. game, it probably will be Alejandro Pena (1-6) or Ken Howell (2-3) facing the Cubs’ Bob Tewksbury (0-1).