Complaining Doesn’t Help Dodgers in 6-2 Loss

As predictable as the game-time temperature in the Astrodome, three things happened when the Dodgers shared the floor with Houston pitcher Mike Scott Wednesday night.

Scott beat them. The Dodgers accused Scott of scuffing the baseball. Scott laughed.

This time the score was 6-2, before a crowd of 33,563. This time Scott struck out a season-high 11 batters in eight innings, giving up four hits and one run.

And this time, after Scott got his major league-leading 16th victory, the shouting was louder than ever.

“If one team complained, it would be different, but everybody in the league complains about him scuffing the ball,” Dodger shortstop Dave Anderson said. “If you are playing him, it’s obvious what he does.”

Added Kal Daniels: “I’ll tell you what, that ball sure does have a lot more movement than anybody I’ve ever faced. The umpires check it, but they don’t see what we see. They don’t see the marks.”

In the Astro clubhouse, Scott smiled.

“They want to check the ball, let them check the ball,” he said. “They want to check me, let them check me. People have checked, and they’ve never found anything.

“I wonder, what do they say when they beat me? What do they say when they get a lot of hits off me? Do they accuse me of anything then?”

That’s a tough thing to ask the Dodgers because in 25 decisions against him in Scott’s career, the Dodgers have only won nine. His career earned-run average against them is 2.53, better than against any other team. In this season alone, he has beaten them four times.

“Yeah,” said Scott, still smiling, “it seems like the Dodgers complain more than anyone.”

Astro reliever Dave Smith, who finished the game, took the rebuttal a step further.

“The Dodgers definitely complain more than anybody, they and Montreal are probably the only two teams that even complain anymore,” he said. “The clubs that do well against Mike, they never say anything. Don’t you think that’s funny?

“It’s almost like the Dodgers come to the park gunned and ready to catch Mike Scott cheating.”

Smith said that worrying about it works against the Dodgers.

“The teams that do the best against Mike just try to hit the ball, not wonder about whether it will do something funny,” Smith said. “And what gets me is, 90% of the time the Dodgers check his split-finger pitches, not his fastball. Why in the heck would he scuff a split-finger pitch that he can throw like he does?”

The Dodgers admit, they like to collect Scott’s pitches. They have even sent a boxful of allegedly scuffed baseballs to the commissioner’s office.

“I think their grandchildren must be playing with them somewhere,” Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda said when asked where the baseballs were.

About the scuffing, Lasorda said: “I’m not saying that he does anything, I can’t prove anything. All I can go by is what my players tell me. And my players say yes.”

After several of his players checked pitches Wednesday, Lasorda met with home plate umpire Bob Davidson to check on a pitch.

“He said he couldn’t see it,” Lasorda said. “But what I’ve seen of the ball, it’s difficult to see it, you have to feel it.”

Other Dodgers agreed that because of what they say are near invisible scuff marks, they will never be able to prove their charges against Scott.

“As many times as people have checked him, and found nothing, it would be incredible to catch him now,” Lenny Harris said. “But I saw something while I was standing on second base tonight that made me think. He was throwing balls to Billy Bean that, even if he swung, he couldn’t get close to them. Pitches that were strikes!

“His pitches do so many things, it’s like a left-hander throwing them.”

Yet realizing the futility of their mission, some Dodgers insist on checking Scott anyway, for other reasons.

“Because checking on breaking pitches don’t do any good, I’ll ask them to check him a few times on pitches right down the middle,” Kal Daniels said. “No way that ball would be scuffed but I figured, it might shake him up a little.”

And?

“He doesn’t shake up very easy,” Daniels said.

In dropping his ERA to 2.44, Scott didn’t allow a baserunner until Jeff Hamilton singled with two out in the fifth inning. Scott was so shook up by that single, he struck out the side in the sixth.

He did have trouble in the seventh, after Daniels and Franklin Stubbs singled. With two out, Hamilton sent a ball flying toward the left-field corner, but Mark Davidson make a leaping grab against the fence to turn a potential extra-base hit into an out.

Meanwhile, Dodger starter and loser Fernando Valenzuela gave up nine hits and six runs, five of them earned, in 6 2/3 innings. After getting through a shaky first three innings, he couldn’t survive a shaky Dodger defense in the fourth. He gave up three runs, all Houston needed.

The inning wasn’t quite what third baseman Hamilton needed. One out after Ken Caminiti led off with a double, Rafael Ramirez chopped a ball in front of third base while Caminiti was attempting to steal third. Hamilton, after retreating to the bag to cover the steal, couldn’t react in time to get the grounder and throw Ramirez out.

“I was trying to run in two directions at once,” Hamilton said.

“It would have taken a quick reaction,” Lasorda said.

After Davidson was walked, Scott grounded a ball under Hamilton’s glove and into the left-field corner to score two runs. A third run scored two batters later on Craig Biggio’s fly-ball out.

“I was playing up a little bit in case Scott tried something funny,” Hamilton said of the grounder. “Maybe if I was back, I would have had a better chance. It’s just the way the year has gone.”

Or in the case of the Dodgers vs. Mike Scott, the years.

Dodger Notes

Mike Marshall missed a second consecutive start Wednesday with a sore back. After playing four games in three days on the hard turf in Pittsburgh, Marshall has not started in three of the Dodgers’ last four games. He took extra batting practice with coach Ben Hines Wednesday, still trying to refine a swing that will spare his back unnecessary strain. “We’re trying different things to protect the back,” Hines said. . . . The X-rays taken of shortstop Alfredo Griffin’s right thumb were negative, but Griffin did not play for a second consecutive night. “It would be different if the pain stays all the time, then I know how to deal with it, but this pain comes and goes,” Griffin said. “And the thumb is not just hurting, but it is weak.”

Kirk Gibson left the team for his Detroit area home Wednesday and won’t rejoin them until this weekend in San Diego. Gibson was placed on the disabled list Sunday with sore legs, and could be out for the rest of the season. . . . One day after being sent to the bullpen, pitcher Mike Morgan met with Manager Tom Lasorda Wednesday and discussed causes for Morgan’s recent struggle. Morgan has already thrown more innings this season (127 2/3) than all of last season in Baltimore (88 1/3). After missing time in 1988 with a sore calf and a toe operation, Morgan followed intense weight training program throughout the winter before reporting to spring training. “I wonder if my body is paying the price for it now,” said Morgan, who has lost three consecutive starts and has a 10.50 ERA during that time. “I’m sure not going to do that weight program this off-season.”

In a somewhat surprising deal, the Dodgers have traded hard-hitting outfield prospect Javier Ortiz to the Houston organization for a player to be named. Ortiz, who has reported to Houston’s triple-A team in Tucson, had 11 homers and 36 RBIs for triple-A Albuquerque and was recently a member of the National League triple-A All-Star team.