After a Great Finish, Dodgers Have Slow Start in 15-4 Defeat

Not even Tim Leary, designated Giant killer, could have helped the Dodgers Sunday. Not, that is, unless Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda made the illogical decision of pitching Leary on one day’s rest or perhaps using him as a pinch-hitter before things got totally out of hand.

“Yeah, maybe I should’ve sent him up to pinch-hit in the bottom of the first,” Lasorda cracked.

It figured, with teammate Orel Hershiser facing the San Francisco Giants, that the Dodgers would be well armed even if Leary sat this one out. But Hershiser suffered through his worst start of the season, lasting only two innings in the Giants’ 15-4 pounding of the Dodgers before a Dodger Stadium crowd of 45,502.

After a stirring extra-inning victory on Saturday night, thanks to Leary’s hitting, and a dominating victory on Friday night, thanks to Leary’s pitching and hitting, the Dodgers produced a monumental clunker in the third game of this four-game series.

About the only positive to which the Dodgers could cling after this debacle was that their lead in the National League West remained at 2 1/2 over the second-place Houston Astros, who lost to San Diego. The third-place Giants moved to within 3 1/2 games.

Officially, Sunday’s game took 3 hours 17 minutes to complete. But, really, this one was decided in less than two innings. That was how long it took Hershiser to allow 8 runs on 7 hits and commit 2 errors that aided the Giant onslaught.

The grisly events of the top of first inning typified a bad day for Hershiser, 16-7 overall but 3-4 with a 4.76 earned-run average in his last eight starts, and the Dodgers.

After Brett Butler’s bloop double down the right-field line, Robby Thompson bunted to the third-base side of the mound. Hershiser fielded the ball, looking at third base. But he bobbled it, then dropped it and had no play at first or third.

Thompson stole second, and when Mike Scioscia’s throw bounced past shortstop Alfredo Griffin and into center field, Butler scored to make it 1-0. After Will Clark singled and Kevin Mitchell struck out, Mike Aldrete’s single to left made it 2-0.

With Clark on third and one out, Bob Melvin grounded to third base, Tracy Woodson throwing to the plate. A spirited rundown ensued, and Hershiser wound up with the ball near home plate as Clark headed home for a possible collision. But Hershiser dropped the ball, enabling Clark to score after running over the Dodger pitcher.

The Giants scored their fourth run in the first inning when Aldrete scored on Matt Williams’ fly ball to center.

The Dodgers bounced back with two runs off Giant starter Kelly Downs (12-9), but this just wasn’t Hershiser’s day.

He allowed a leadoff single to Butler, then retired Thompson and Clark on fly balls, before the Giants handed Hershiser his death sentence. Mitchell’s single moved Butler to scoring position, and Aldrete singled in Butler for a 5-2 lead. Melvin, 0 for 13 in his career against Hershiser, drove a hanging curveball into the left-field seats for a three-run home run to give the Giants an 8-2 bulge.

“Today, I threw the ball well in the first inning,” Hershiser said. “I just booted a couple balls that hurt me. In the second inning, I didn’t throw the ball well. I hung a curve to Melvin. In fact, I teed it up for him.

“I had no bad thoughts about the first inning. I felt good going into the second inning, because we had scored those two runs. It was just a baseball game today. I was able to laugh it off about a half hour after I left. I know it was serious to the guys still playing, but I knew it was just one game.”

At that point, the Dodgers’ only hope was that Downs would continue his poor start, too. No such luck. After his first-inning trouble, the Giant right-hander pitched four shutout innings before yielding a run in the sixth. By that time the Giants had an 11-3 lead.

The game quickly deteriorated after Hershiser’s departure. The Giants scored three runs (two on a homer by Butler) off reliever Shawn Hillegas and added four more against relievers Tim Crews and Brian Holton. Leading the Giants’ 20-hit attack was Butler, who went 3 for 4 with 2 RBIs; Aldrete, who went 4 for 6 with 2 RBIs and Melvin, who had the homer and another hit.

“We had Orel going today and I felt confident, but it just goes to show that the only certainty in baseball is that nothing is certain,” said Lasorda, who indicated he will remain with a four-man starting pitching rotation despite Hershiser’s bombing while pitching on three days’ rest.

The game became so laughable, to use Hershiser’s expression, that a scoreboard malfunction in the late innings kept adding runs to the Giants’ total until it showed a 95-4 lead. Then, it went to 5-4 and finally it went blank altogether, perhaps a victim of a circuit overload.

One thing Hershiser cannot laugh about is his disturbing statistics over the last month. He has allowed 26 earned runs in his last 49 innings and has had only one complete game in that span.

Another statistic that might have Hershiser cursing the cursor of his portable computer, which he uses to chart his performances, is giving up 18 home runs in 185 innings this season. Last season, Hershiser allowed 17 in 264 innings.

Is this a slump, Orel, or what?

“No, it’s not a slump,” Hershiser said. “I analyze baseball on a day-to-day, pitch-to-pitch basis. I’m throwing the ball well. I haven’t thrown it poorly. Stats can’t show everything. If I thought I had a slump, it would be when I’m not executing on my pitches and have mechanical problems.

“At the level of ability I’ve attained, I don’t see (an outing like) this as a common occurrence. So, I chalk up a game like this to experience, that’s all. Ability doesn’t disappear overnight.”

Maybe, then, Hershiser simply misplaced it Sunday.

Dodger Notes

The Dodgers Sunday optioned pitcher Shawn Hillegas, who lost his starting spot in the rotation last week, to triple-A Albuquerque and recalled Ken Howell, who had a 10-0 record with a 2.81 earned-run average for the Dukes. Even though Howell has been a starter for Albuquerque, Manager Tom Lasorda said that Howell will be used as a reliever. He said he still plans to use a four-man starting rotation, for the time being. “Howell is better suited to a relief role than Hillegas,” Lasorda said. . . . Despite getting knocked out early in his first start on three days’ rest, Orel Hershiser says he likes the concept. “I’ve always been an advocate of that,” Hershiser said. “It helps me.” . . . Controversy reigned in Saturday night’s long-playing 2-1 Dodger win over the Giants in 11 innings. By Sunday morning, players, coaches and umpires still were talking about the ejections of two Dodger players and Lasorda, as well as pitcher Tim Leary’s game-winning single to center with the bases loaded and two out in the 11th. Leary was sent up as a pinch-hitter because Mike Davis, the last available Dodger position player, was ejected two batters earlier for arguing a foul-ball call on a bunt play in which it appeared that Giant pitcher Joe Price might have touched the ball. Sunday, home plate umpire Paul Runge explained why he ejected Davis from the Dodger bench: “Basically, there were two guys, (Alfredo) Griffin and Davis, standing up and arguing. I couldn’t allow them to stand there waving their arms. They still had coaches to argue plays if they wanted to, but (third base coach Joe) Amalfitano didn’t say a word. I told Griffin and Davis to sit down. Griffin did, but Davis didn’t. I don’t know if it was an authority thing with him or what, but I couldn’t let him stand there waving his arms. It was more (Davis’) actions than what he said.” Davis’ version: “I didn’t argue with him at all. I did tell him (from the dugout) that (Price) bumped (the ball). Runge then stared me down. I waved my arms, like saying ‘OK, I’m not going to mess with you.’ He then screamed at me, ‘Sit down.’ I said, ‘What’s wrong with you?’ He then screamed, ‘You want a piece of me.’ It was the worst thing I’ve ever seen. (The umpires) don’t have anyone checking up on them. It’s ridiculous. They can do whatever they want.” Lasorda and Runge met before Sunday’s game to discuss Saturday night’s ejection of Davis.

Then there were the strange circumstances surrounding the ejections of Pedro Guerrero and Lasorda. Guerrero, on first base after a single in the 11th, apparently argued that Price had balked. On that disputed pitch, Guerrero made it to second base anyway on a passed ball. At that point, Guerrero had to be restrained from attacking Joe West, the second base umpire. Lasorda then ran onto the field and alternatively argued with West and restrained Guerrero with forearm jabs. Said West: “(Guerrero) argued a couple innings earlier. He said, ‘The guy balked.’ I just said that he didn’t. Guerrero then called me a big-headed . . . I won’t take that from anybody.” About Lasorda’s ejection, West said: “I think he just wanted to go with (Guerrero).” Said Lasorda on the first two ejections: “Guerrero told me he had been kidding back and forth with West all game. Pete said he jokingly told West that Price had balked. I don’t know what Joe thought. I didn’t get thrown out for profanity. I just stayed out there too long, I guess.” . . . Meanwhile, Leary knew he would be used as a pinch-hitter when Davis was ejected. Leary, hitting .320, said he looks forward to hitting. “I think the DH in the other league is a waste,” Leary said. “Right now, there aren’t a lot of good hitting pitchers because they don’t practice. There used to be a lot of guys (pitchers) who could hit.” . . . Sign above Leary’s locker Sunday morning: “The Babe.” . . . Kirk Gibson was given Sunday off. In the first two games of the Giant series, Gibson went 0 for 8. He had a run-scoring grounder as a pinch-hitter Sunday. . . . Reliever Tim Crews was pulled from Sunday’s game in the seventh inning because of an injury. But Crews said he doesn’t know what the injury is. “Perry (pitching coach Ron Perranoski) ran out and asked me if I’m OK,” Crews said. “I told him I was get a little tired. It was so slight. That’s why he took me out. It’s crazy. It’s kind of frustrating. But I’ll be availble to pitch (tonight).”