No Labor of Love for Dodgers : But Tudor Throws Three Shutout Innings in 4-0 Loss to Expos

The performance by the Dodgers on Sunday of Labor Day weekend seems best categorized as an insult to working people everywhere.

It drew boos from a Dodger Stadium crowd of 37,011 as early as the first inning and resulted in a 4-0 loss to Kevin Gross and the Montreal Expos.

Gross (11-9) allowed only six hits as the Dodgers suffered their 15th shutout and were restricted to two runs or fewer for the 57th time.

And this time, a normally reliable defense was comparably inept. The Dodgers made three errors in the first inning and four in the game. Half of the Expos runs were unearned. Orel Hershiser (14-11) came down with the infection, commiting one of the errors and a balk in a five-inning stint that matched his shortest of the season.

The latest loss might have been as forgettable as the preceding 71 except for the return of John Tudor.

In only his fourth appearance of a season in which he has twice been on the disabled list for shoulder tendinitis, Tudor allowed only one hit in three shutout innings. He struck out three and walked two.

It was his first assignment since he went one inning as the starter in a 6-4 loss to the Chicago Cubs July 7. Tudor returned to the disabled list the next day and was not activated until Saturday night, after he told Manager Tom Lasorda that he felt ready to pitch in relief.

“The last time,” Tudor said, alluding to that July start that followed his first return from the disabled list, “I bumped a guy (Tim Leary) out of the rotation and sent another guy (Tim Crews) down (to the minors). I messed up guys’ lives and I don’t want that to happen again.

“If they want me to start I will, but the only thing I told Tom was that once the rosters were expanded (Sept. 1), maybe he could get me in a blowout game.”

Since Sunday’s game wasn’t exactly a blowout, it was that much more of a test for Tudor, though the real test, he said, will come today, when he learns how the shoulder responds.

“It felt fine today,” he said, “but it felt fine in my rehab starts, too, then acted up the next day.

“It’s been a mess for a long time, and my only goal right now is to get through the rest of the season. I’ll go out whenever they ask me and see what happens, but it’s still kind of Russian roulette.

“I mean, I came back the last time thinking I was ready and wasn’t, so I don’t know what to expect. I was pleased being out there today, but I’m not going beyond tomorrow or the end of the year right now.”

Neither are the Dodgers.

“We have a lot of evaluations to make and Tudor is one of them,” vice president Fred Claire said. “The first thing we have to determine is if John is healthy.”

Plus, with his contract up, does he want to continue pitching, and does he want to do it in Los Angeles?

Tudor, earning $1.3 million in 1989, has hinted that he may retire when this contract expires. Sunday, however, he said: “If I didn’t want to pitch I wouldn’t have stayed around, I wouldn’t have asked them to let me.”

Said Lasorda: “We’ll have to see how the shoulder reacts, but I was impressed with his velocity and control after being off for so long.”

There was little else that impressed Lasorda Sunday.

Right fielder Mike Marshall gave Tim Raines an extra base, bobbling his game-opening single, to set the tone. Mike Scioscia bobbled a bunt in that inning and then had a throwing error. Hershiser was charged with a balk.

The Expos, three games behind the Chicago Cubs in the National League East, got only one run out of it, but added two in the second when Hershiser threw away a bunt.

Said Scioscia: “We were terrible offensively and defensively, and I had my hand in the undoing. I can’t speak for others, but I was . . . “

Hershiser did speak for others, citing rampant frustration. The Dodgers have scored only 14 runs in his 11 defeats, getting just three runs in his last 35 innings. A 2.35 earned-run average, the league’s second best, reflects his performance more than a modest record.

“This has been tough on the whole club, not just me,” Hershiser said. “Some games we’ve played well and come up short, and some games we’ve played poorly. I’d say that in the first few innings today we didn’t play well and I didn’t pitch well.

“Maybe we’re all trying too hard. It’s a very frustrating thing to go from world champion to playing the role of spoiler. It’s no fun losing and knowing nothing is at stake.”

DODGER ATTENDANCE

Sunday: 37,0111989 (68 dates): 2,603,7751988 (68 dates): 2,625,684Decrease: 21,9091989 average: 38,291