Dodgers Lose, 7-5, Drop 20 Games Under .500 : Stretch Run Begins With Another Stride Toward the Western Division Cellar

As his team prepared to play its first game of September Tuesday night, Philadelphia Phillies Manager Lee Elia reflected on the standings in the National League East and said: “I’d like to finish second now that first place is going to be difficult.”

Tom Lasorda, Elia’s Dodger counterpart, has stopped reading the standings. Lasorda only hopes the Dodgers finish on their feet. September is a survival test.

Lasorda spoke with his team about that before Tuesday’s game, hoping to dispel the recent lethargy and instill a measure of pride and incentive for the final 31 games.

So much for good intentions.

Handicapped again by injuries and ineptitude, the Dodgers lost their sixth in a row, falling to the Phillies, 7-5, to slip 20 games under .500 at 56-76. The last time the Dodgers were 20 games under .500 was July 21, 1979, when they were 38-58. They are 14 1/2 games out of first in the National League West and two games from the cellar.

The Phillies are 10 1/2 games out of first in the East and 6 out of second. They might still be considered a title threat except that they have only one more game remaining with the Dodgers, against whom they are 9-2 this year.

A crowd of 23,074, the smallest of the year at Dodger Stadium, saw the Dodgers’ patchwork lineup collect eight hits off five Philadelphia pitchers. The last was Steve Bedrosian, who registered his 35th save by aborting a ninth-inning Dodger rally that had produced two runs.

The Dodger ninth began with a double by Phil Garner and single by Mike Scioscia off Jeff Calhoun. The Dodgers had two runs in with two on, two out and Tracy Woodson at bat when Lasorda took a gamble and asked Steve Sax to steal second. The Phillies countered with a pitchout, and Lance Parrish gunned down Sax to end the game.

Sax had been running on the two previous pitches, both of which Woodson fouled off.

“The situation called for a pitchout, but I wasn’t real comfortable with it,” Parrish said. “After Sax ran the first time I didn’t expect him to run the second. After he ran the second time I didn’t expect him to run the third. But I looked at Mike Schmidt, and he gave me the sign and that solidified my thinking. It worked out pretty good.”

Lasorda said he was simply trying to avoid a force play and get the tying run to second while hoping that the Phillies wouldn’t think Sax would be running a third straight time.

Bedrosian, who walked two of the four batters he faced, smiled later and said the save belonged to Parrish.

Wally Ritchie, the second of the five Philadelphia pitchers, had quelled the Dodgers’ only other significant threat when he got Danny Heep to bunt into a double play and struck out John Shelby after consecutive singles by Ralph Bryant, Glenn Hoffman and Ken Landreaux had led to two runs in the fifth.

A pinch homer by Tito Landrum off Mike Jackson in the seventh accounted for the other Dodger run. Mickey Hatcher also displayed some punch in the sixth when he was ejected for arguing on a called third strike, then repeatedly waved his fist at umpire Terry Tata as he prowled the dugout.

Tim Leary, the sometime starter and sometime reliever, absorbed his 11th loss against three wins. He worked five innings, giving up three hits and three runs.

A double by Steve Jeltz led to the first run in the third. Parrish’s 15th homer produced the second and third in the fourth.

The Dodgers trailed only 3-2 in the sixth when Ron Davis, the former reliever for the Yankees, Twins and Cubs, made his debut as the latest Dodger retread. Davis faced six batters and four reached base, though one was walked intentionally.

There were two walks, two singles and a sacrifice fly before Davis--who was signed to a minor league contract with Albuquerque Aug. 13 after being released by the Cubs with a 5.85 earned-run average for 21 games--was relieved by Brian Holton.

Holton yielded another run in the seventh on a two-out single by Schmidt, the hit accounting for Schmidt’s 92nd run batted in this season. Juan Samuel built the lead to 7-3 in the ninth when he slugged his 23rd homer, off Brad Havens.

Dodger Notes

Pedro Guerrero was a late scratch from the Dodger lineup because of a strained left knee. He pinch-hit in the ninth and walked with the bases loaded, forcing in a run. . . . Tim Leary, two batters after yielding Lance Parrish’s two-run homer in the fourth inning, drew a warning from home plate umpire Terry Tata after throwing a 1-and-1 pitch behind the head of Jeff Stone. . . . The Dodgers announced that Mike Devereaux, who batted .301 with 26 homers at San Antonio, would join the club today. . . . Helen Dell, the Dodger Stadium organist for 16 years, will retire at the end of the season. . . . Orel Hershiser (13-12) was not at the ballpark Tuesday because of the flu, but he is expected to face Don Carman (8-9) in tonight’s series finale.