It’s True: Giants 16, Dodgers 2 : Honeycutt Shelled Early in Rout as His Slump Hits 10

Leave it to those Dodgers to find a way to wrap everything up in one package. They put the finishing touches on their longest homestand of the season by staying close for the shortest time of the season and got hammered, 16-2, Wednesday night by the Giants.

The Dodgers, falling two touchdowns short of the Giants, did a little bit of everything in this spectacle. The littlest bits pertained to pitching and hitting.

After one inning, it was 3-1. After three innings, it was 7-1. After four innings, it was 12-1.

By that time, it seemed clear that this game didn’t need a final score as much as it needed a vaccine.

How about this lineup? Steve Sax in left field. Alex Trevino at third base. Phil Garner at second base. That was what the Dodgers put on the field in the ninth. So who’s on first, Abbott or Costello?

Not too many saw this lineup, however. Most of the 39,908 fans at Dodger Stadium had already hit the freeways early. While they were there, though, they made their presence heard.

To at least some of the fans, it clearly was not Dodger player appreciation night.

They booed Pedro Guerrero after he booted a ball and let it get past him for a run-scoring error.

Manager Tom Lasorda said booing is not new to baseball. “They booed Babe Ruth,” he said. “They booed Walter Johnson.”

At Dodger Stadium, they also booed Dave Anderson when he struck out swinging in the third inning. And for a slight change of pace, they booed him when he struck out looking in the fifth.

Sax actually drew a cheer when he dived in vain for a two-run double down the left-field line by pitcher Mike Krukow in a four-run Giant ninth inning.

Sax, who hadn’t played left field since the minor leagues, said he was clearly an outfielder of last resort.

“It was an indication of things not going well,” Sax said.

All the ninth-inning runs came at the expense of Brian Holton, the fourth pitcher offered in sacrifice to the Giant hitters by Lasorda.

“We just got the h-e-l-l beat out of us,” Lasorda said, spelling out the defeat.

The Giants’ 16 runs and 16 hits were the most off the Dodgers this season.

No team has scored as many runs against the Dodgers since the Pirates had 16 on May 3, 1985.

“There’s not much to analyze,” Dodger catcher Mike Scioscia said. “Games like this happen sometimes. But it doesn’t matter what the other teams do if we don’t come together and play consistent ball. If we don’t and that doesn’t happen, it’s going to be even more difficult for us.”

Rick Honeycutt, the loser, managed to keep his streak going, though. Honeycutt lost his 10th straight game and is now closing in on an 83-year-old Dodger record for futility.

Honeycutt is only four defeats from the team record of 14 consecutive losses that was set in 1904 by Jim Pastorius.

Honeycutt (2-11) lasted until the third inning, at which time the only thing higher than his earned-run average was the score. Honeycutt, who hasn’t won a game since May 12, was charged with 6 runs in 2 innings.

All the damage the Giants did to Honeycutt inflated his ERA to 5.48 since his last victory, when he shut out the Cubs.

Kevin Mitchell’s three hits, two of them doubles, led a 16-hit Giants attack in support of Krukow (2-6), who also received five RBIs from Chili Davis.

Davis hit a three-run homer off Honeycutt in the first inning and a two-run double off Tim Leary in the fourth. Leary worked five innings, and that was his only bad one, but it was more than enough for the Giants to make Krukow a rare winner.

Krukow entered the game with a 6.06 ERA and six consecutive no-decisions. For Krukow, it was simply no contest.

He allowed only 6 hits, struck out 3, walked 1 and was touched only by solo home runs by John Shelby in the first and Alex Trevino in the eighth.

The sinking liner that eluded Sax for a double was Krukow’s second hit of the game. Krukow was asked to explain.

“Even a blind hog finds an acorn every now and then” he said. “It wasn’t pretty.”

Actually, Honeycutt and Krukow began the game with their own personal home run pitching derby. Honeycutt took the early lead. He nearly escaped the first inning, but Davis sent a two-out, one-and-one pitch deep into the pavilion in left-center field.

Mitchell, who had singled, and Jeffrey Leonard, who had doubled, scored ahead of Davis, whose 17th home run staked Krukow to a 3-0 lead.

The Dodgers got one run back as soon as they had a chance. With one out in the first inning, Shelby hit his 11th home run of the season. The home run was the 14th off Krukow, who leads the Giants’ staff in allowing baseballs to be hit out of the park.

That stood as the Dodger highlight until Trevino matched it with a bases-empty homer leading off the eighth.

But by the third inning, Honeycutt was gone and so was the game. The Giants decided to keep the ball inside the park, but it didn’t matter much. They chased Honeycutt with four runs in the third, two of them the result of a bases-loaded double by Will Clark, to expand their lead to 7-1.

Then they got really nasty in the fourth. Tim Leary endured a five-run inning on a two-run double by Davis, an RBI single by Mike Aldrete and an error by Guerrero on the same play that let Clark score the fifth run.

That put the Dodgers in arrears, 12-1. Guerrero left the game in the top of the fifth, which is also about the same time the Dodgers left.

Dodger Notes

The Dodgers finished their 13-game homestand 6-7 and now must hit the road again--a spot that hasn’t been too good to them this season. The Dodgers, who are 17-31 on the road, leave today for a six-game trip to Atlanta and Cincinnati that begins with a game Friday night against the Braves. On the Dodgers’ six previous trips, they came home with more wins than losses just once. . . . In the meantime, the Giants are approaching the most critical juncture of the season. By the time the Giants play the Dodgers again Aug. 14, the Giants will have played 14 games--seven with Cincinnati and seven with Houston. However, San Francisco Manager Roger Craig isn’t worried about having to play his major competition. “I like to play the clubs we’ve got to beat out to win the division,” Craig said. “I enjoy playing Cincinnati and Houston, and the Dodgers aren’t out of it yet either. They still got a shot.” The only Western Division team that really is out of it is San Diego, Craig said. . . . Pitcher Kelly Downs, struck on his pitching arm by a ball hit Tuesday night by John Shelby, has been scratched from his normal pitching turn Saturday. Mike LaCoss will face the Reds instead. . . . Once outfielder Candy Maldonado (broken right ring finger) returns in about 10 days, Craig is going to have to make some hard decisions about his outfield. Maldonado, who was hitting .332 when he was injured June 27, has to play somewhere, but the question is who will sit down for him? Switch-hitter Chili Davis owns center field, so that leaves either left field, where Jeffrey Leonard starts, or right field, which is currently occupied by Mike Aldrete, the team’s hottest hitter. Joel Youngblood also platoons in right with Aldrete. . . . Mike Marshall was back in uniform, but he was kept out of the starting lineup. Marshall is still recovering from a viral syndrome as well as a sore back. “I feel much better, but I’ve never sweat so much in my life as I have the last three days,” he said. . . . Mickey Hatcher (strained groin muscle) was kept out of the game in hopes that with the extra day off and a travel day he may be ready to play against the Braves. . . . Channel 11 will televise all three games from Atlanta. . . . Exactly 25 years ago Wednesday, Frank Howard drove in five runs in an 11-1 win over the Giants. Howard finished July with 41 RBIs, the Dodgers’ record for most in a month.