Dodger Party Runs Late, Gets Ugly : Astros Spoil All the Fun With 4-2 Win in 15 Innings

What began as a swell little homecoming party for the Dodgers, one in which almost everyone in a blue uniform received at least one door prize--a 1988 World Series championship ring--turned into one of those exhausting affairs where the Dodgers could hardly wait for the last guests to depart from a crowd of 47,136 paying customers at Dodger Stadium.

The Houston Astros, however, paid no heed to how tired the Dodgers were Thursday afternoon for their home opener. The Astros took their sweet time--in this case, 15 innings that stretched over 4 hours 16 minutes--to squeeze out a 4-2 win that ultimately squelched whatever joy was left in the occasion for the Dodgers.

Not only that, but on the day the Dodgers were honored for finishing first in major league baseball last year, the Astros dumped them into last place in the National League West. That indignity was made possible after a throwing error by Dodger first baseman Eddie Murray, the Los Angeles native son who was making his regular-season Dodger Stadium debut.

“Even though they lost, in one way I would have liked to have been in their shoes today, with all those awards and their championship rings,” said the Astros’ sole slugger, Glenn Davis, whose two-out, game-tying home run in the eighth inning stopped the Dodgers in their tracks.

“That was last year. But this year, I’d rather be in our shoes.”

Given their druthers, the Dodgers, who followed six weeks of spring training in Florida with a three-city, eight-game tour that didn’t bring them home until the wee hours of the morning Thursday, would have preferred to be in bed. Their bats obviously fell asleep long before their owners, who were shut out over the last nine innings by four Houston pitchers on four hits, a performance that dropped the team batting average to .204.

“So far, the schedule hasn’t helped us much,” said third baseman Jeff Hamilton, whose .162 average is higher than two other Dodger regulars, Murray and Alfredo Griffin, who was dropped from second to eighth in the batting order.

Hamilton, like many of his teammates, didn’t get to sleep until almost 3:30 a.m., after the team’s post-midnight flight from San Francisco.

“That doesn’t make a good energy day, does it?” Hamilton said, “but the other team doesn’t give a you-know-what. It’s just a problem we’ve got to deal with.

“But you can see it a lot in big situations where your concentration is drained. It affects you, whether you like it or not.

“You can’t make excuses, but it’s kind of a catch-22. You just have to go out and keep playing.”

It wasn’t that simple for Kirk Gibson, who began this season here the way he did the last--with a limp, only this time minus the electrifying home run that punctuated his sole World Series at-bat last October.

Gibson took himself out of the game after striking out in the sixth inning, which left him hitless in three at-bats, including another strikeout. Trainer Bill Buhler said the Dodger left fielder, whose spring has been marred by knee, hamstring and shoulder problems, complained of being stiff and sore all over.

Gibson was replaced in left field by Mariano Duncan, one of 19 players employed by Manager Tom Lasorda. The only non-pitcher left on the Dodger bench was catcher Rick Dempsey, who was being saved in case something happened to Mike Scioscia, who wound up catching 24 innings in a span of 22 hours.

“It’s just against my better judgment to continue playing,” said Gibson, who even with his injuries has been the Dodgers’ most productive hitter with eight runs batted in.

Despite that admission, however, Gibson is reluctant to concede that he will, indeed, sit out a while.

“I don’t know that,” he said. “I’m not really in the mood to talk about it.”

The Dodgers’ mood, more upbeat after Mike Marshall’s sixth-inning home run off Houston starter Jim Clancy, was decidedly blue after Davis connected off Tim Belcher, who retired 11 straight batters before the home run.

“The whole team looked like it ran out of gas after they tied it up,” said Marshall, who began the day with three straight hits--two singles and the home run--before tapering off to two strikeouts and a ground ball.

The Dodgers finally hit empty when Murray--who knocked in the Dodgers’ first run with a sacrifice fly, hit two singles to add 41 points to the .094 average he brought into the game, and made a sprawling backhanded stop in the ninth to save a run--threw Bob Forsch’s bunt into center field on an attempted force play.

Ray Searage, fourth Dodger pitcher of the day, gave up a run-scoring single to Rafael Ramirez, and Tim Crews, pitcher No. 5 who was making his league-leading sixth appearance, was tagged for an RBI double down the left-field line by Billy Hatcher.

“The way this game was going, I knew it would take a walk or an unfortunate play to decide it,” Marshall said.

“But we’re an aggressive team, and Eddie made an aggressive play. That’s good. When you’re aggressive, more good things happen than bad.”

Searage started the inning by walking Houston’s No. 8 hitter, Ken Caminiti, who had doubled in Houston’s first run in the second inning.

“I’d like to take back that pitch in the second inning,” said Belcher, still looking for his first win after three starts, including nine strong innings Thursday.

“It was stupid pitching for me to give him anything at all to hit with first base open and the pitcher up next.

“I can live with Davis hitting the home run . . . he’s capable of doing that, even though he one-handed it, but I should have pitched around (Caminiti).”

Ronald and Nancy Reagan, who sat in owner Peter O’Malley’s private box, weren’t around to witness the rival bullpens matching zero for zero. They left after the seventh inning, even though Mrs. Reagan--who threw out the first ball after doing the same for Game 1 of the World Series--was called a good-luck charm by Lasorda.

In the wake of the Dodgers’ loss Thursday, someone asked Lasorda if Mrs. Reagan’s pitching career is over.

“She had nothing to do with our run production,” Lasorda said.

And while her early exit seemed to fit the prototype of Dodger fans, it could be that Mrs. Reagan was a little confused. Some of the players were.

“I lost track about the 10th inning,” Dave Anderson said. “It’s been a long 48 hours for us.”

Lasorda, like his players, was operating on about four hours’ sleep. Asked if he was tired, he said: “You’re damn right. When we don’t win, I get awfully tired.”

That doesn’t bode well for the bags under his eyes.