Two Balks Costly for Dodgers : Lasorda Says Leary and Holton to Blame in 4-2 Loss to Astros

Balking at the notion that the umpires, rather than his players, were responsible for a 4-2 loss to the Houston Astros here Sunday, Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda stood in the privacy of his office and demonstrated the proper way to pitch without being called for a balk.

He looked in for the sign, went into a stretch, and then brought his hands together and rested them at his waist. He waited one second, and then another, before finally delivering his pitch.

Perhaps if Dodger pitchers Tim Leary and Brian Holton had emulated their manager and exaggerated their pitching motions they would not have balked home two runs, which contributed to a loss that cut the Dodgers’ National League West lead to 2 1/2 games over the Astros.

“To me,” said an indignant Lasorda, “I don’t understand why pitchers don’t stop. Just stop. What’s so difficult about that? Geez, we’re reminding them all the time. I was hollering at them to watch the balk the whole . . . game. If I know a guy is on that base, I’m sure as a son of a gun going to stop.”

Leary and Holton, however, said that they had stopped and termed the strict enforcement of the balk rule “ridiculous.”

Said Leary, 11-8 after the loss: “What was (National League President Bart) Giamatti thinking about when he came up with something like this. He’s never played the game. Teams are losing ballgames because of this.”

As per the new interpretation of the balk rule, which has caused commotion and confusion throughout baseball, a pitcher must come to a complete and discernible stop from the stretch before finishing his delivery. As a result, the Dodgers suffered a complete and discernible loss to the second-place Astros.

In the opinion of home plate umpire Doug Harvey and his crew, Leary was guilty of a balk in the fifth inning with Billy Hatcher on third base and the Astros holding a 2-0 lead. Third base umpire Bob Davidson ruled that Leary did not stop completely, waving in Hatcher from third for a third Houston run.

Then, in the seventh inning, Harvey himself raised his arms and waved in Bob Knepper from third base because Holton, too, had not come to a complete and discernible stop.

That made it, 4-1. And, when the Dodgers added a second run in the ninth inning, they later pointed out that it probably would have been a 2-2 tie had it not been for umpire intervention.

“That was a . . . call,” Holton said. “I know I tend to balk a lot, but I know I didn’t balk that time. No way. The balk rule is set up so you don’t deceive the runner. Why would I try to deceive a runner at third base? Without the balks, it’s 2-2.”

In a coincidence not lost on Lasorda, the same umpiring crew was responsible for helping the Dodgers beat the San Francisco Giants on July 26. Harvey and his crew called a balk on Giant reliever Scott Garrelts with a runner on third in the 11th inning to give the Dodgers a 5-4 win.

There was celebrating, not complaining, that night.

Lasorda, who says he is trying to live with the current balk interpretation, nonetheless pointed out that Harvey’s crews seem to lead the National League in calling balks.

“Tommy is right; we probably have,” Harvey said. “It’s because we are adhering to the rules of the game. I don’t think Tommy complained when I called one on Scotty Garrelts. Now, he’s got one back at him.

“I know, personally, of people (pitchers) on teams that are now being fined for getting balks called on them. You’ve got to live with the rule.”

Harvey said that, at least to his umpiring crew, it does not matter whether a runner is at first, second or third base. He also said that, as division races are heating up, teams can expect the emphasis on the balk rule to increase, not wane.

“Up until the first half of the season, when a pitcher was close to balking, we’d whisper it in the catcher’s ear to watch it,” Harvey said. “But now, it’s the pennant race and we don’t give them anything.

“Very often, it’s not the first time a pitcher balks that we call it. We might see something, and that gets our antennas up. Holton did that today. He balked the pitch before that (balk), too.”

Lost in all this squawking about balking was the fact that the Dodger offense once again failed against the left-handed Knepper, who gave up 1 run and 5 hits in 7 innings to earn his 12th win.

The only Dodgers to figure out Knepper were Leary, who had two hits but was stranded both times, and Mike Marshall, who hit his 15th home run, with the bases empty, in the sixth inning. The Dodgers added a run in the ninth off Danny Darwin, but left-hander Juan Agosto quelled a rally by getting Kirk Gibson to ground out to earn the save.

“This was the biggest game in the series in the sense that we’re now guaranteed a split,” Knepper said. “But we’re not looking for a split. We’ve got Scotty (ace Mike Scott) going (tonight).”

It was the first time in five starts that Leary, developing into the Dodgers’ ace, had not lasted at least nine innings. He did not pitch badly Sunday, but was hurt by two big hits--doubles by Glenn Davis in the fourth and Hatcher in the fifth.

Davis scored the game’s first run when he went to third on Leary’s wild pitch and scored on a groundout. Hatcher’s double scored Alex Trevino, who reached on an infield hit. And then Hatcher scored on the first of the two balk calls.

“Maybe I did rush it,” Leary said. “I’d have to look at the replay. But they seem to be calling so many borderline balks. The umpires have far too much control over the game. They’re inconsistent. I think the league’s gone way too far on the balk rule. But it evens out, I guess.”

Dodger Notes

The Astros’ Mike Scott, tonight’s starter, has a bruise under his left eye after a mishap Saturday night in the Astros’ dugout. Denny Walling was swinging his bat when a weighted doughnut flew off, bounced on the ground and hit Scott in the eye. . . . Houston Manager Hal Lanier said he met with his pitchers before the series with the Dodgers to discuss the balk rule. “You can’t allow any doubt in the umpire’s mind of whether or not you stopped,” Lanier said. “You can’t lose your concentration when a runner gets on base.” . . . Dodger catcher Rick Dempsey said Leary is susceptible to balks when he throws his split-finger pitch. “I went out to the mound and told him two or three times during the course of the game to watch it,” Dempsey said. “Tim has a tendency to rush it on that forkball (split-finger). From where I saw it, Leary might have balked, but (Brian) Holton did not. His rhythm was the same on every pitch.” . . . With the loss, Leary’s earned-run average went from 2.24 (second best in the league) to 2.32.