Claire Sees No Reason to Panic Yet : Murray a Bright Spot as Slumping Dodgers Lose Fourth Straight

One month into the season, the Dodgers are in fourth place, two games under .500 and three games behind first-place Cincinnati in the National League West.

They’ve lost four in a row for the second time this season, after not having lost more than three straight at any time in 1988. Kirk Gibson is laid up with a bad leg, and the rest of the team--except for Eddie Murray, who hit a two-run homer in the ninth Sunday afternoon that wasn’t enough to prevent a 4-3 loss to St. Louis and a three-game sweep by the Cardinals--is locked in a slump of major proportions.

A year ago in April, the Dodgers led the league in hitting with a .253 average. This season, after a month, they’re last with an average of .228 after batting .213 (43 for 202) on this trip, in which they failed to score more than three runs in any of six games split between Chicago and St. Louis.

They’ve hit 10 home runs, which ties them for last with the Cubs and tonight’s opponent in Dodger Stadium, the Pittsburgh Pirates. And only three Dodgers have taken anyone deep--Gibson, Murray and Mike Marshall, who hasn’t had an extra-base hit in the last eight games.

Last season at this time, the Dodgers were 13-7, a half-game out of first place. Now, they’re 11-13 and closer to last place than first after ex-Dodger Pedro Guerrero doubled home what proved to be the winning run off Tim Belcher in the fifth.

What’s a general manager to do?

Counsel patience, at least if you’re Dodger Executive Vice President Fred Claire, who bore witness along with 48,726 paying spectators in Busch Stadium as Cardinal pitcher Ken Dayley struck out pinch-hitter Willie Randolph with John Shelby on first as the potential tying run, ending the Dodgers’ hope of salvaging one game in this series.

“We just had a trip where we won only two of six games, yet we scored 12 runs and gave up only 13,” Claire said. “When I look where we are, where we’re headed, we’re a very good ballclub.

“Obviously, we’re not hitting, but we will hit. Kirk will be back, and when he’s back, Kirk, Mike Marshall and Eddie Murray give us as potent a lineup as any in the National League. I truly believe that.

“We’ve gone through a tough stage where we’re not hitting, but we’ve been in every ballgame, one hit away from winning every game.

“I said in spring training that we have a better ballclub than we had last year, and I still believe that just as much now. There isn’t anybody in the division running away with anything, and I see this ballclub well set for the long run.

“What saves you in the long run is pitching and defense. Hitting comes and goes, for every club, but if you’ve got pitching and defense, then you’re there.”

So far, Dodger pitching has been the best in the big leagues, even though Belcher’s scoreless-inning streak ended at 21 when the Cardinals bunched four hits together in the third inning, including a double by Tony Pena and a triple by Vince Coleman.

Dodger throwing errors directly led to the other Cardinal runs. Catcher Rick Dempsey’s fourth-inning attempt to stop Milt Thompson from stealing second bounced into center field, allowing Thompson to take third, from where he scored on Tom Brunansky’s sacrifice fly. Then in the fifth, Belcher compounded Coleman’s leadoff single by throwing wildly on a pickoff attempt, sending Coleman to third, where Guerrero picked him up with a double for his 19th RBI this season.

“Those things are going to happen,” Belcher said. “I beat myself like that on opening day (against Cincinnati, when he threw a bunt into left field).

“I didn’t make an error all of last year, I didn’t commit a balk in the year of the balk, and here I’ve made just five starts and I already have two errors.”

Belcher also had two badly swollen fingers on his right hand, the result of a second-inning bunt attempt in which he caught more of Joe Magrane’s pitch with his hand than his bat. Coincidence or not, the Cardinals teed off on him the next inning, after he’d set down the first six batters with ease.

“I wish I could pitch 275 innings the way I did that first inning,” said Belcher, who struck out Coleman and Terry Pendleton in the first, sandwiched around a weak roller by Ozzie Smith.

“I spotted every pitch where it was called and where I wanted to put it. I think my fingers were more of a psychological hindrance than a physical hindrance. I wasn’t sure of the feeling of my pitches. I was reluctant to throw breaking balls after that, and maybe I lost some of my fastball.”

X-rays taken of Belcher’s bruised ring and pinky fingers were negative.

If anything has allowed Claire to remain positive in the midst of the Dodgers’ losing ways, it has been Murray, who crushed a fastball from Cardinal relief ace Todd Worrell for his fourth home run of the season, tying him with Marshall for the team lead, a hit that gave him a team-high 18 RBIs.

Murray, a very slow starter his last few years in Baltimore, is on a nine-game hitting streak that has raised his average to .283, No. 1 among Dodger regulars.

“A great force for this ballclub will be Eddie Murray,” Claire said. “I think he’s going to have a tremendous season. He showed that in this series, the way he was driving the ball, and he jarred a few bricks in Wrigley Field, too.

“He’s there every day, and this club will look a lot to him because he’s an impact player. When we have Kirk back, and Marshall and Murray, get the bats and balls and let’s go play.

“The pitching already has shown it’s there, and the defense, that’s why I feel good about it. Because the offense will be OK.”

How soon that will be is anybody’s guess. For now, the offense is miserable. Randolph went one for 22 on the trip, reached base just once from the leadoff spot, and was sat down by Lasorda until pinch-hitting for Jeff Hamilton in the ninth. Streak hitter Marshall is on a miserable downturn: He is hitting .133 in his last nine games and has almost as many strikeouts (17) as Shelby (18), whose infield hit off Worrell in the ninth left him with a .186 average.

The saving grace for Randolph and Shelby has been their defense: Randolph has yet to make an error in 23 starts at second base and is as automatic at turning the double play as Steve Sax was unpredictable. Shelby has been nearly as superb in center, his sprinting catch of Thompson’s drive in the second a case in point.

“I don’t see anybody panicking in here, saying, ‘Oh my gosh, what’s happening?’ ” Claire said. “I believe in the talent here, the balance here.”

All that’s missing was contained on the hand-held sign Orel Hershiser held up in the Dodger dugout this weekend: “Mom: Please Send Runs.”

Dodger Notes

Rookie outfielder Chris Gwynn, who joined the team Saturday from Albuquerque, did not start Sunday against Joe Magrane, a left-hander, but could start tonight against Pirate right-hander Doug Drabek. Gwynn pinch-hit in the ninth off Cardinal reliever Todd Worrell and lined out to center. “I didn’t know what was going on,” said Gwynn, talking about the circumstances revolving around Kirk Gibson, whose placement on the disabled list prompted Gwynn’s recall. “I thought they (the Dodgers) had decided to keep (Gibson) in there. My older brother, Charles, was reading me the papers in L.A. and telling me what was going on.” Asked if he were worried at all about the prospect of being yo-yo’d back and forth between L.A. and Albuquerque, Gwynn said: “What can you do? I’m just hoping if I play well enough I’m going to stay. Of course, what happened in spring training (when he hit .366 and was still sent down) is in the back of my mind, but I’m just going out and play.” . . . Mariano Duncan started at second in place of Willie Randolph, had a single in four trips and was robbed of another by Ozzie Smith, one of two brilliant plays by the Cardinal shortstop. Duncan, however, also was picked off first in the third inning. The next batter that inning, Mickey Hatcher, singled, one of his three hits on the day, but then was cut down stealing.