Dodgers Get Away With a Giveaway : They Blow Three Leads but Still Defeat Phillies, 10-8

The result of this drama may have been to the Dodgers’ liking, but they could not have appreciated a portion of the unpredictable plot that unfolded here Thursday night.

Squaring off against the Philadelphia Phillies, the worst the National League East has to offer, the Dodgers blew three leads because of faulty relief pitching from Tim Crews and Jesse Orosco and a two-run error by usually steady center fielder John Shelby.

The Dodgers, however, did not want to get bogged down in all their failings. The fact was, every time they lost the lead, they eventually recovered it without too much damage being done. By the end of an anxious night, the Dodgers had finally beaten the Phillies, 10-8.

And they were proud of it, regardless of the opponent or the circumstances.

“This is a big win for us,” outfielder Mickey Hatcher said. “We didn’t give up. We kept battling. You always try to forget the wrong things you did. We’re going to make mistakes. We know that. But we don’t have to dwell on it.”

The practice of selective memory was employed by nearly all the Dodgers, who swept the downtrodden Phillies at Veterans Stadium after losing five of their previous six games at home.

Shelby, shrugging off his seventh-inning error that erased a 5-3 Dodger lead, lined a ninth-inning double that drove in Kirk Gibson with the tying run. He later scored what eventually was the winning run on Hatcher’s single.

Crews, who gave up three singles in the bottom half of that inning, was eventually taken off the hook by the Dodger offense. Same for Orosco, who blew a 7-6 lead in the eighth inning.

“Hey, we won,” said Orosco, who has blown three of his last four save opportunities. “That’s all I care about. If we’d lost, I’d have felt like . . . But we won. The guys picked me up.”

One guy, in particular. Reliever Jay Howell followed Orosco in the eighth inning and eventually returned some semblance of order in the ninth inning to earn the win. But first, Howell had to work out of a no-out, bases-loaded jam inherited from Orosco.

Summoned to protect a 7-6 lead in the eighth inning, Orosco gave up a leadoff single to Bob Dernier. Then, he threw eight straight balls, loading the bases and prompting Manager Tom Lasorda to bring in Howell, the fifth pitcher the Dodgers had used.

Howell forced Juan Samuel to fly to shallow center field for the first out. But Von Hayes hit a blooper down the left-field line that bounced on the springy artificial turf and settled in the stands for a ground-rule double and an 8-7 Philadelphia lead. After walking Lance Parrish to load the bases, Howell struck out slumping Mike Schmidt and forced Chris James to ground to first to keep the Dodgers within striking distance.

“I did the best I could,” Howell said. “But Hayes fought off the pitch and just hit it where we weren’t. We could have laid down when we got behind again, but we didn’t.”

Indeed, the Dodger offense made Phillie relievers look equally ineffective. Against Phillie ace Steve Bedrosian, Gibson opened the ninth with a double to left-center and moved to third on Mike Marshall’s deep fly ball to center.

Shelby then redeemed himself with a double down the right-field line to tie it, 8-8. Hatcher’s subsequent single to center scored Shelby for a 9-8 lead. Not comfortable, perhaps, with another one-run lead, the Dodgers added a third run that inning.

Mike Scioscia singled to right, Hatcher apparently being held up at third. But Scioscia deked the Phillie infield by taking a wide turn at first base and getting caught in a run-down, allowing Hatcher to score for a 10-8 lead.

With a two-run cushion, Howell pitched an uneventful ninth for his second win.

None of those ninth-inning heroics would have been necessary had it not been for the seventh-inning failures of Crews and Shelby.

Crews had pitched 9 scoreless innings since being recalled from the triple-A Albuquerque club, but Thursday was the first time he was brought in with a lead to protect. He couldn’t hold it. With one out, Greg Gross and Samuel hit consecutive singles.

Then came the big blow. Von Hayes hit a hard liner to center field. Shelby broke back for it, then rushed in. But the ball nicked off the tip of his glove near his feet for an error. Two runs scored, making it 5-5 and ruining starter Don Sutton’s chance for a win. Crews yielded another run on Schmidt’s run-scoring single for a 6-5 Phillie lead.

Alejandro Pena, clearly the most effective Dodger reliever Thursday, kept the Dodgers close by striking out the two batters he faced to quell the rally.

“I just missed the ball,” Shelby said. “No excuses. It’s over with. We came back and got ahead. Then they came back. Then we came back. In the long run, (the error) had nothing to do with (the game).” In the top of the next inning, the eighth, the Dodgers reclaimed the lead once more, 7-6, off Kent Tekulve and Bedrosian.

Early highlights, almost ignored given the late-inning developments, included Steve Sax’s first two-home-run game.

Sax knocked Phillie starter Shane Rawley’s first pitch of the game over the left-field fence for his fourth home run of the season. Four innings later, Sax belted a two-run home run off Rawley in roughly the same spot. He later doubled, scored another run and had a run-scoring ground ball in the eighth. He went 3 for 5 with 4 RBIs and 3 runs scored.

Asked about the first multiple home run game of his career, Sax offered a quick correction.

“That’s not the first time,” he said, smiling. “Little League, 1972. Sacramento. I hit two off Roger Matsumoto. I swear. I’m not making it up.”

Even the often vivid imagination of Sax could not have dreamed up a game like Thursday’s, one in which he hit two home runs and that turned out to be one of the more normal things that went on.

“This game just exhausted me,” Lasorda said. “I have a headache.”

Dodger Notes

Don Sutton gave up three runs (including two home runs) and six hits in six innings but earned a no-decision. Milt Thompson and Chris James homered off Sutton, who has allowed 460 in his 22-year career. . . . Alfredo Griffin joined the Dodgers in Philadelphia Thursday night and will go through a fitness regimen to stay in shape despite the broken bone in his right hand. . . . Said suspended Dodger slugger Pedro Guerrero to Steve Sax, who hit two home runs: “You’re going to replace me. You’ll hit 25 home runs.”