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Dodgers Feel the Pinch in 3-2 Loss

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Times Staff Writer

With any other team, in any other year, the move is easy. It raises no questions.

It’s the seventh inning, your team has just tied the game and placed the go-ahead run on first base with one out. Your starting pitcher is the batter. Your move is to replace him with a pinch-hitter.

Easy.

That’s what Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda did Wednesday night in a 2-2 tie with the St. Louis Cardinals. He took out Orel Hershiser and brought in a pinch-hitter.

That’s fine except this is the worst-hitting team in baseball. Hershiser seems as much an offensive threat as anyone else.

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Certainly, on this occasion the Dodgers didn’t get any more from a pinch-hitter. First, Lasorda called on left-handed Franklin Stubbs to bat for Hershiser. But when the Cardinals countered by bringing in left-handed relief pitcher Frank DiPino, Stubbs left without facing a pitch, in favor of right-handed Jeff Hamilton, who flied out to deep center field, and the rally died.

In the bottom of the seventh, Dodger reliever John Wetteland gave up a triple to Jose Oquendo. Wetteland left in favor of Ricky Horton, who allowed a double to John Morris, and the Dodgers lost, 3-2, before 34,495 fans at Busch Stadium.

Afterward, last year’s National League manager of the year was asked the question that reflects the Dodgers’ season: Why bat for Hershiser?

All Tom Lasorda could do was shake his head.

“It wasn’t a hunch . . . I was just trying to get a run,” he said. “How about if that ball goes out of the ballpark? I’m a genius, right? Because the guy doesn’t do the job, it doesn’t make it the wrong move.”

Lasorda stared at the floor.

“This game, it will drive you crazy,” he said. “It was the same story tonight as it is every night. It wasn’t hitting for Hershiser. It was that to win the game, we can only give up one run. To win the game (Tuesday), we can’t give up any runs. Everybody knows the reason for our troubles, everybody knows we aren’t hitting.

“I mean, face it. If I leave Bulldog (Hershiser) in to pitch, it’s still a 2-2 tie. We could play forever.”

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The Dodgers’ third consecutive loss, and their fifth defeat in five tries in St. Louis this season, took about three hours, long enough for Los Angeles to drop 10 games behind the National League West-leading San Francisco Giants.

As Lasorda said, it was the same story.

The Dodgers fell behind in the third when the Cardinals scored in their typical fashion--two runs on three singles, with a two-strike, two-out single to left field by Ozzie Smith scoring both runs.

The Dodgers had only three hits against shaky Cardinal starter Scott Terry until the seventh but still managed to blow a couple of rallies, Eddie Murray helping to end both. In the fourth, he lined into a double play. In the sixth, he hit a two-out, check-swing tapper to third base to leave the bases loaded.

In the seventh, Mike Marshall reached first base when Terry hit him in the side with a pitch. Mike Scioscia doubled to left field to score Marshall, and Mickey Hatcher’s ground-out moved Scioscia to third.

In came pinch-hitter Alfredo Griffin, who didn’t start for a second consecutive day because of lower back pain. He batted for Dave Anderson and made Lasorda look like a genius this time by singling to right field to score Scioscia and tie the game.

It was time for Hershiser, who was in the on-deck circle and ready. After all, one inning earlier, he had singled to improve his average to .205, which is within 30 points of the team average.

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“Sure, I want to bat in that situation, I’m a competitor, I always want a chance,” Hershiser said. “But I turned my head to the dugout and saw him wave me back, and that was it. I thought I might bat if Alfredo drove in the run . . .

“But I’m not going to question my manager. Tommy is an emotional manager, he’s an emotional man, and in his mind and a lot of minds, he made the right move. I mean, look at the story, it’s the same story. No runs.”

Hamilton, the eventual pinch-hitter in Hershiser’s spot, drove the ball to the fattest part of the park, but it was caught in left-center field by Milt Thompson. Then, with Jose Gonzalez batting, Griffin attempted to steal second, another measure of the team’s desperation. He was easily thrown out to end the inning.

“I know the reason for all this,” Lasorda said. “I just need to find the cause.”

Dodger Notes

Mike Davis was scheduled to return to Los Angeles, where his sore left knee will be examined today by Dr. Frank Jobe. The knee, which has been bothering him most of the season, was aggravated two weeks ago on a slide in Cincinnati and has not improved. As a pinch-hitter Wednesday, Davis struck out to end the game. He had earlier said that the knee would probably require some sort of arthroscopic surgery after the season. But it may require surgery immediately. If not, Davis will rejoin the team this weekend in Chicago. “I can swing the bat good, but after that, I’m a piece of junk,” said Davis, hitting .250 with five homers and 18 RBIs in 157 at-bats.

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