Dodger Offense Takes Pitching Down With It

A theme recurred Sunday afternoon, the idea that a pitcher should not have to throw a shutout every time just to stay in the game. This theme was sounded earlier in the trip when pitcher Tim Belcher was overheard muttering to himself, “Don’t be afraid to score any runs.”

Sunday, after the Expos beat the Dodgers, 3-1, it came up again, this time without the sarcasm or bite. Mike Morgan, the starter and loser, was just stating facts, sorry as they were.

“We needed a shutout to win, and I can’t throw a shutout every time,” he said, shrugging his shoulders.

The fact that the Dodgers are playing .500 ball and managed to finish this trip with a 5-4 record, winning five of their last seven, is because of the starting pitchers, who mostly have thrown shutouts. It seems, moreover, that Morgan in particular has thrown shutouts every time.

Morgan, rescued from the American League where he became famous as the pitcher with the worst record in baseball, has had a phenomenal run, entering this game with a league-leading earned-run average of 0.77. He had allowed just two runs in his last 30 1/3 innings and probably would be up there with Belcher in shutouts (Belcher has three) if his sore foot ever allowed him to complete a game.

But he couldn’t continue the string; in by far his worst outing, which tells you something, he opened the fourth inning by giving up a single and then back-to-back doubles. With the Dodgers still in a 3-0 hole two innings later, he was lifted for a pinch-hitter.

Morgan (3-2) didn’t think he had exactly gotten rocked. He said he was throwing well but: “They just hit the ball. Hubie (Brooks), he hits it down the line and if it’s over a few feet it’s a double play. It’s a matter of inches.”

Brooks’ double knocked in Dave Martinez, but that wasn’t all the damage. Mike Aldrete then drove a ball into center field that had John Shelby scampering to the warning track. Shelby chose to play the carom, but there turned out not to be one. It bounced over the wall for another double. Before Morgan, who hadn’t given up more than two runs in a game all year, got out of the inning, an infield out by Mike Fitzgerald drove Aldrete home.

That play once more reminded Morgan that this is a game of inches. “Fitzgerald hits that roller a little harder, it’s a 2-1 game.”

But it was 3-1 and three runs is special kind of doom for Dodger pitchers, none of whom have been able to count on much support from the worst-hitting team in baseball. Many Dodgers, including Manager Tom Lasorda, believe this is something they are snapping out of. “I think they are swinging the bat better,” he said afterward.

In fact, the Dodgers have had a couple of big-run victories this trip, 9-0 and 8-0. Mike Davis, who had a run-scoring double that looked for all the world like a two-run home run until it hit near the top of the center-field fence in Olympic Stadium, said, “Our bats are starting to wake up a little bit.” His maybe. He is nine for 26 on this trip, playing in relief of Kirk Gibson and Mike Marshall.

But the rest of the team has not always been so offensive. The team batting average, at .225, is .002 lower today than when they left for this trip.

It is small wonder that Dodger pitchers get frustrated. “I’ve gotta win some games where I give up three runs,” Morgan said. “I can’t throw shutouts every time.”

Then again, he had to admit, he didn’t even throw as well as Montreal’s Bryn Smith (4-1), who Davis said, “kept the whole club off-balance (with his forkball).” Morgan said: “The other guy was better, I have to hand it to Bryn Smith.”

The Dodgers managed only four hits off Smith. In fact, the Dodgers only bona fide outburst at the plate came when Marshall was hit on the hand by a Smith pitch on which Marshall swung for strike three. Marshall complained to home-plate umpire Doug Harvey that it was a checked swing and was prepared to let it go at that. But then, after everything seemed to be in order, Marshall was tossed.

After the game Marshall showed off a nice crease on his left hand where the ball had pinched it against his bat. He explained the chronology of events this way: “He (Harvey) was mad because I questioned him on the first pitch, a ball low he called a strike. I was just going to walk to the outfield, I’d had my say, when he started up again. He obviously wanted to throw me out. I was going out and he got my attention, turned me around. He just started barking at me again.”

Marshall may have barked as well. He appeared to be barking. In any event, he was ejected.

That was about all the Dodger batters could come up with in the way of being offensive.

Morgan again: “The starting pitchers have been doing their job, which is to keep the team in the ballgame. We’re still in a game at 3-1. . . . It’s bad to lose, but I didn’t throw the ball that bad.”

Lasorda, who is hoping to see Gibson restore some power to the lineup when he returns during the home stand--when, he doesn’t know--was somewhat encouraged by the trip, which went the Dodgers’ way after all, 5-4. “But it would have been a nice road trip, if we’d won. Could have been 6-3, right?” he said.

Only if his pitcher had thrown a shutout.