Belcher’s Sleeplessness Reflects Waking Dodger Nightmare, 6-2

Pitcher Tim Belcher, caught up in the increasing frustration of the Dodgers’ season, tried to work Wednesday night without much sleep. He figured he wasn’t ready. And he wasn’t.

Before the Philadelphia Phillies had sent seven batters to the plate, he had walked two men, hit another and trailed, 2-0.

Three hours later, he stared into space and sighed.

“I was out of it the whole game,” he said.

So were the Dodgers, who were defeated for the second straight time by the team with the worst record in the National League. They fell to the Phillies, 6-2, on a night that showed how the bumpy road from champion to loser can rattle more than than a team’s record.

Belcher, who in his last two starts has given up eight runs in nine innings, said he hasn’t been sleeping well. He said the Dodgers’ fall has cluttered his thoughts.

“I’ve been fighting so hard to get my record back to .500, fighting to get this team back to .500 . . . I’ve drained myself mentally,” he said. “Once I get on the mound, I’m in trouble, and it has nothing to do with the game. It has to do with 24 hours and 48 hours before the game.”

Belcher said this season has turned him into a guy who could use a couple of beers before bed.

“As soon as my last start was over, I started thinking about this start,” he said.

“I had a couple of beers, went home, would turn off the TV at midnight . . . but could not fall asleep at 2 a.m. Then I would get up at 7 a.m. and not be able to sit still. I’m fidgeting all day, running around all day, not able to relax.

“I know I don’t have ulcers. But my wife probably thinks I do.”

Belcher (8-12) showed that worry in his previous start, during which he gave up five runs in 2 2/3 innings in San Francisco. Then, before 25,703 fans at Veterans’ Stadium Wednesday, he showed it again.

After settling down to shut out the Phillies on three hits from the second to the sixth inning, he gave up a two-out run-scoring single to No. 8 hitter Steve Jeltz that gave the Phillies a 3-2 lead.

“It looked like I settled down, but I never did,” Belcher said. “I was lucky to last that long. I can’t keep beating myself mentally. I have to stop playing every game before we play it. I have to quit thinking about this all the time.”

He shook his head.

“I have to come to the realization that this is not going to be a good year for me,” he said.

“I have got eight starts left this season and I’m not dumb enough to think that I can win all eight of them. I have to quit fighting it. I have to go from there.”

The Dodgers’ frustration, meanwhile, continued unabated.

First, Phillie pitchers walked seven and allowed 15 base-runners, including eight who reached scoring position.

But the Dodgers scored two runs.

“Those are the kinds of games that last year, we would have in the bag in the fourth inning,” Belcher said. “Unbelievable.”

Second, the game was cinched on a glaring mental error. With runners on first and second and the Dodgers trailing, 3-2, in the seventh, reliever Alejandro Pena gave up a double to right by Ricky Jordan.

Von Hayes scored easily with the first run, and John Kruk scored the second run by crashing over catcher Rick Dempsey as second baseman Willie Randolph’s throw scooted under Dempsey’s glove.

But the play was not finished. Randolph’s throw kept scooting, all the way to the backstop. Pena had not backed up home plate.

By the time he reached the ball, Jordan had scored.

“I just forgot to go back there; it was my fault, I admit it,” Pena said.

The admission didn’t make Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda any happier.

“The guy on the mound has got to back that throw up, I’m very upset he did not,” Lasorda said.

Said Dempsey, who lay on home plate for a minute after his collision with Kruk: “I didn’t see where the pitcher was, but if he wasn’t behind me, he wasn’t in the right spot.”

Said Randolph: “I did my job. I threw a two-bouncer to the plate.”

The Dodgers certainly didn’t do the job offensively against Philly starter Don Carman, who earlier this season gave up seven runs in one-third of an inning to the Dodgers.

The Dodger offense seemed deflated after that Phillie first, and with good reason. Belcher had given up a single to Tommy Herr, walked Von Hayes and Kruk, and hit Jordan in the sleeve for one run. Another run scored on Charlie Hayes’ grounder.

But there seemed little excuse for the Dodgers leaving two runners on base in the second, another runner on second base in the third, two runners in the seventh, and then the bases loaded in the eighth.

In that eighth, with one out against Philly reliever Roger McDowell, Alfredo Griffin struck out and Randolph grounded out to strand all three runners.

Randolph’s fifth-inning double, followed by Jeff Hamilton’s single, scored the Dodgers’ only legitimate run of the night. One inning earlier, they had scored when Jose Gonzalez singled, stole second, moved to third as catcher Darren Daulton’s throw bounced off his helmet, and came home on a Carman wild pitch.

No matter, there is enough fault for everyone these days. Some, like Belcher, take it different than others. Some take it harder.

Dodger Notes

Former infield prospect Tracy Woodson, who left the triple-A Albuquerque team last week for personal reasons, has not returned and probably will be suspended or released today. Woodson was given permission to leave the Dukes for his Raleigh, N.C., home on Aug. 10. Four days earlier, the Dodgers had recalled infielder Mike Sharperson, which Woodson reportedly viewed as a snub. When he did not return within a couple of days, Albuquerque Manager Kevin Kennedy learned that Woodson was not planning on returning. Dodger Vice President Fred Claire said he would make an announcement concerning Woodson’s situation today. Because he would become a six-year minor league free agent after this season, Woodson would probably have been released anyway. Outfielder Kal Daniels, who had arthroscopic knee surgery Aug. 11, has been given clearance by Dr. Frank Jobe to rejoin the Dodgers Friday in New York. Trainer Bill Buhler said Daniels could be ready by the middle of September. “I think we could see him a little bit before the end of the season,” said Buhler, who added that strenuous pre-surgery therapy on the knee will hasten Daniels’ comeback.