Sutton, Dodgers Throw One Away, 4-1

Fear of embarrassment, the motivational device that Don Sutton has often credited for his continued desire to be a quality pitcher at his advanced age, has been quite effective for him this season. That is, in most starts, he has embarrassed hitters more than himself.

But Wednesday night, in Sutton’s first poor outing in a month, those fears were realized, leaving the 43-year-old pitcher--and some other Dodgers--red-faced and 4-1 losers to the Atlanta Braves before 27,878 fans at Dodger Stadium.

Sutton, who lasted a season-low 3 innings, gave up a pair of run-scoring singles to Brave pitcher Rick Mahler, of all people, and also allowed another run with a throwing error in a third inning that the Dodgers no doubt would rather forget.

“I’m comfortable with the way I’m throwing the ball,” said Sutton, whose record fell to 3-5 and earned-run average rose to 3.70. “But I’m not comfortable with the results.”

That assessment was passed along to Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda for concurrence. Lasorda agreed with only half of Sutton’s statement.

“I’m not happy with the results, either,” Lasorda said.

But, what about the pitching of Sutton, who allowed 6 hits and 3 earned runs?

“I gave you my answer,” Lasorda said. “I’m not happy with the results.”

No one on the Dodgers could be happy about what transpired in a third inning that featured an apparent miscalculation on a sinking fly ball by left fielder Kirk Gibson, an error on a foul pop-up by first baseman Franklin Stubbs and Mike Marshall’s difficulty in fielding a single in right field.

Lasorda defended Gibson’s judgement call of letting the fly ball drop for the first hit--”Sometimes, it’s hard to pick up the ball in the early part of the game,” Lasorda said--and brushed aside the Stubbs error and Marshall’s misplay because they did not directly affect the scoring.

But the biggest faux pas belonged to Sutton, who had trouble fielding Mahler’s sharp grounder back to him with runners on first and third. After Sutton’s wild throw to first nearly beaned umpire Bob Engel and rolled down the foul line, two runs scored and the Dodgers appeared to be in for a long night.

That was evident because Mahler’s impressive hitting display--two singles and a warning-track fly ball--was only surpassed by his pitching performance. Mahler, who had not won since June 1 when he pitched a complete game against Pittsburgh, threw a complete-game four-hitter Wednesday.

Mahler did it by mixing in an effective curveball, a deceptive change-up and a fastball that had considerable movement.

“He had everything working for him tonight,” Dodger catcher Mike Scioscia said. “He had control of the strike zone. He doesn’t have great stuff, but he can use what he has. He pitched a good ball game.”

The lone Dodger run came in the fifth inning, when Dave Anderson’s two-out double scored Jeff Hamilton, who had singled.

It had to be a heartening win for the Braves, who had lost four straight and had served as punching bags for the Dodgers all season. Going into Wednesday’s game, Atlanta had lost 10 of 12 games to the Dodgers this season.

For the Dodgers, it was costly. They had matched their season-high win streak of five a night earlier and needed a win to maintain their 2 1/2-game lead over Houston in the National League West. Instead, they embark on a six-game trip to Cincinnati and Houston with only a 1 1/2-game lead over the Astros.

The way in which the Dodgers lost it in the third and fourth innings had to be even more disquieting.

Sutton had breezed through the first two innings, yielding only a single and needed only 14 pitches. In the third inning, he threw 31 pitches.

Ozzie Virgil led off by lofting a fly ball to medium left field. A moment’s indecision by Gibson resulted in the ball dropping a few feet in front of him for a single.

Ron Gant then blooped a single to center, the rampaging Virgil taking third. Sutton figured to catch a break, since Mahler was the next batter. But the Brave pitcher hit a sharp grounder back to Sutton, who could not handle it. The ball bounced off his glove and trickled behind the mound, enabling Virgil to score.

It was at that point that Sutton made his worst throw of the night, an off-balanced, side-armed toss that missed Stubbs at first base and went behind Engel, positioned about 15 feet to Stubb’s right.

The speedy Gant was halfway between second and third base when Sutton’s errant toss bounded into foul territory and he scored easily with Mahler winding up on second.

“Maybe in the past, (Sutton) was physically capable of making that play,” Ron Perranoski, the Dodger pitching coach, said. “But that ball bounced too far away from him to try to make a throw.”

Mahler almost had a chance to score one batter later, when Albert Hall lined a single to right. Marshall let the ball get away from him, but Mahler held at third when Marshall quickly retrieved it.

Ken Oberkfell, the next batter, hit a pop up behind home plate that Scioscia had camped under, anticipating the inning’s first out. But the onrushing Stubbs knocked the ball out of Scioscia’s glove, drawing an error. That misplay did not hurt Sutton, who got Oberkfell to foul out to Stubbs several pitches later.

Dion James’ groundout scored Mahler for a 3-0 lead.

Sutton began his fourth--and final--inning by walking Ken Griffey who, two batters later, stole second base on a bungled pitchout in which Scioscia had trouble releasing the ball. Then, after the Dodgers decided to walk Gant intentionally, Mahler delivered a single to left that scored Griffey and ended Sutton’s battle against embarrassment.

“There weren’t many balls hit hard against me,” Sutton said. “The bottom line is, they put up four runs and I was the guy they got them off.. . . I’m not satisfied with the bottom line.”

Dodger Notes

Shortstop Alfredo Griffin, who fractured a bone in his right hand on May 21, had the cast removed from his right hand Wednesday, after being examined by a hand specialist. Griffin will commence exercises to improve arm strength and range of motion in his wrist. Dodger trainers did not say when Griffin would begin swinging a bat or throwing. But it probably will be two weeks or longer. He will be examined again on June 30, when the Dodgers return from a six-day trip to Cincinnati and Houston. Said Griffin: “I can’t even move my wrist now. I just have to work on getting that down before I do anything else. It’s great to have the cast off, but I don’t know when I can play again.”

Mike Davis is becoming increasingly frustrated by his lack of playing time. Davis, hitting .203 going into Wednesday’s game, has taken ground balls at first base in hopes of getting a spot start, but he did not sound optimistic. “If they don’t do anything soon, let me know about it. Then, maybe they can work something where I can go somewhere else. But the preference is to play here. And I’d like to play.” . . . Ken Howell, who suffered a sprained left knee last week and also continues to rehabilitate his right shoulder after off-season surgery, has been put on a 20-day rehabilitation assignment. He will report to the Dodgers’ triple-A club in Albuquerque, N.M., today.