Dodgers Again Fail to Hold Lead, Lose in 11th Inning, 2-1

Already out of uniform but nonetheless rigidly moving in single-file with heads bowed, Fernando Valenzuela and Jesse Orosco walked out of the clubhouse less than two minutes after the conclusion of Wednesday night’s 2-1 Dodger loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates in 11 innings.

Just as it had been earlier on the pitching mound, Orosco closely followed Valenzuela. They had almost made it down the hallway and out the exit, but this was a night when they could elude neither Pirate rallies nor reporters’ questions.

Orosco, asked to protect Valenzuela’s tenuous 1-0 eighth-inning lead, a little more than 24 hours after blowing a one-run ninth-inning lead in Chicago, again lost the save opportunity. He gave up a run in the eighth and managed to hold Pittsburgh scoreless in the ninth. But the Dodgers could not muster the offense or the sustained bullpen help needed to reclaim this one. Three innings and two Dodger relievers after Orosco’s eighth-inning downfall, Pittsburgh’s Randy Milligan launched a run-scoring double off Alejandro Pena in the 11th to give the Pirates the victory, despite the fact they trailed for most of the game’s 3 hours 46 minutes.

Among the questions in the hallway Wednesday night were these: (1) Did Valenzuela think that he could have continued in the eighth, despite clusters of walks and a growing pitch-count? (2) Did Orosco, the club’s left-handed short reliever, feel burned out after pitching in 7 of the last 10 games.

The answers were a tentative, “Yes,” to the first question and an emphatic, “No!” to the latter.

“I felt fine,” Valenzuela said. “Maybe he (Manager Tom Lasorda) could have let me go one more hitter. But I’m not going to say he’s wrong. He’s the manager. It’s his decision.”

Said Orosco: “I’m fine. I’ve learned to pitch tired. If I’m tired, my sinker can be more effective. I’ve had a couple of missed opportunities. But if you judge the season by that, well . . . it’s too early.”

Orosco, in fact, told Lasorda and pitching coach Ron Perranoski afterward that he still feels strong enough to pitch an inning tonight, should Orel Hershiser need relief help.

“That would be very nice for us,” Lasorda said, when it was suggested that a Hershiser complete game would be a welcome break for the bullpen.

Considering that the Dodgers used all available relievers (excluding the ineffective Brad Havens) as well as a starter, Hershiser, in Tuesday’s 14-inning win over the Cubs, this would have been a good night for Valenzuela to give the bullpen a much-needed break.

Despite his usual balancing act between walks (5) and strikeouts (8), Valenzuela took a 1-0 lead into the eighth and seemed in reasonably good shape. But after Valenzuela walked Darnell Coles on four straight pitches to open the inning, Lasorda and Perranoski summoned Orosco, who had lost a 5-4 lead in the ninth Tuesday at Chicago.

Before Orosco’s arrival this season, Lasorda had stayed with Valenzuela in such a late-inning situation. But Orosco has been 3 for 3 in save opportunities before Tuesday, so Valenzuela was removed. Orosco walked Milligan and, one out later, gave up a run-scoring single to left field by Junior Ortiz.

Orosco saved face, as well as the game, in the ninth inning. He pitched out of a self-induced jam following two walks and gave the Dodgers an opportunity to win in extra innings for the second straight game.

But on a night when the Dodger offense stalled like a cut-rate rental car--getting nine hits off three Pirate pitchers--and when subsequent relievers Jay Howell and Alejandro Pena ran out of gas, following Orosco, the Dodgers could only try to prolong it as long as possible.

Howell, who pitched 1 innings Tuesday in Chicago, took himself out of the game after pitching a scoreless 10th Wednesday. Howell, who had surgery on his right elbow in the off-season, complained of an unspecified malady to Perranoski.

Pena, not used to pitching on consecutive days after surgery on his right shoulder in 1985, gave up a one-out walk to Andy Van Slyke, who went to second on a wild pitch. One out later, Milligan lined a double to right-center that easily scored Van Slyke with the winning run.

Perhaps, if Valenzuela had had better control of his pitches in the early innings, Lasorda would have been able to avoid raiding the bullpen for a second straight game. But Valenzuela threw 90 of his 138 pitches in the first 4 innings, walking 3 and striking out 7 in that span. He also had to pitch out of three jams in those innings, which seemingly took something out of him later.

“I’m having trouble almost every inning, especially with the walks,” Valenzuela said. “When you walk and strike out so many guys (in the same outing), you have to throw many pitches. I’ve been having trouble the last two years with that. I’m not a power pitcher. I have to move the ball around.”

Orosco, mainly relying on his sinker and slider Wednesday night, did not move the ball around the plate enough to fool Ortiz, who drilled the first pitch into left field to score Milligan from second base.

“I got the sinker down (to Ortiz), but he just went down and got it,” Orosco said. “Like (Tuesday), (Chicago’s Shawon) Dunston hit a slider (for a game-tying double), but I got that down, too. They were both good pitches.”

Not good enough, though. But Orosco found solace in the fact that he did not give up the winning run in the ninth.

“If I had given up and thrown in the towel, we would’ve lost in the ninth,” Orosco said. “I had to get out of the ninth to give us a chance to win the game.”

Dodger Notes

Reliever Scott Medvin earned the win for the Pirates, yielding one hit in the 11th. The lone Dodger run came when Fernando Valenzuela singled in Mike Scioscia in the fifth inning off starter Bob Walk. . . . Mike Davis had 3 of the Dodgers’ 10 hits. . . . Dodger reliever Alejandro Pena suffered his first loss Wednesday night, but it also was the first run Pena has allowed in 15 innings this season. Pena had pitched on consecutive days only once before this season--April 12 and 13 in San Diego, when he pitched two scoreless innings. . . . Manager Tom Lasorda on the eighth-inning removal of Valenzuela: “We thought maybe he was getting tired. The amount of pitches doesn’t make my decision.” . . . Lasorda on Jesse Orosco’s busy recent schedule: “He said he felt fine. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have put him in there, pal.” . . .More than an hour after the conclusion of Tuesday’s game in Chicago, Cub pitcher Rick Sutcliffe apologized to Pedro Guerrero for verbal sparring after a third-inning brush-back incident. “It’s over,” Guerrero said. . . . Orel Hershiser (6-0) opposes John Smiley (2-2) today at 4:05 p.m., PDT.