Dodgers Make It Easy for Viola to Make It 7-0

After making every recent opposing pitcher look like Frank Viola, it was appropriate that on Saturday, the Dodgers were forced to face the real Frank Viola.

You can guess whom he looked like.

“I wish I had some words to describe what this team is going through,” said Mickey Hatcher, almost speechless after the unbeaten Viola pitched a four-hit shutout in the New York Mets’ 7-0 victory over the Dodgers.

As the Dodgers lost a sixth consecutive game for the first time since late 1987, words became redundant while negative statistics kept piling up.

In the last six games, the Dodgers have been outscored, 47-15. With another error Saturday, they have committed 12 during that time, three fewer than the Cincinnati Reds have committed the entire season.

The Dodgers have fallen four games in the National League West standings. They haven’t been eight games out of first place this early in the season since 1967, when they finished in eighth place, 28 1/2 games out of first.

And even Eddie Murray is starting to get hurt. Because of a left hamstring strain, Murray missed his first game as a Dodger Saturday, breaking a 389-game streak that was the major league’s second longest.

“This ship is in a little bit of a storm,” Manager Tom Lasorda said.

Viola was both happy and thankful to see the Dodger wreckage sail past him. Needing to merely throw the ball over the plate after being handed a 6-0 lead in the fifth inning, he yawned his way to a major league best 7-0 record with an 0.87 earned-run average.

Viola has not allowed a run in five of his seven starts. He has allowed runs in only three of his 51 2/3 innings.

When asked if he could pitch any better, Viola said, “Probably not.”

He added, “I don’t want to say it surprises me, but, yeah, it surprises me. And I’m not going to take anything for granted because I know what can happen.”

He is not the only one surprised. Last season, after he was traded to New York from Minnesota for five prospects, he was 5-5 with a 3.38 ERA.

“This spring, I kicked myself in the butt,” Viola said. “I felt I failed last year, and failed miserably . . . and I wanted to be in the best shape I could be in.”

In front of 41,935 fans at Shea Stadium Saturday, the Dodgers had the market on failure.

John Wetteland had his second poor start in three tries as Orel Hershiser’s replacement in the rotation. He allowed six runs, three earned, on seven hits in 3 2/3 innings.

He was hurt not only by a poor offense, but a poor defense. As they have done throughout this losing streak, Dodger fielders handed out extra outs that were exchanged for runs.

“They’re not beating us,” Lasorda said. “We’re beating ourselves.”

Wetteland, 1-3 with a 7.56 ERA, gave up a run in the second inning after Juan Samuel misplayed Mike Marshall’s two-out fly ball into a double. Daryl Boston followed with an RBI single. In his last five games, Samuel has made three errors plus a couple of unrecorded mistakes.

“I screwed it up,” Samuel said of the fly ball that fell behind his head. “I just didn’t play it right. When he swung, I took one step in. And that’s all you need is one bad step.”

Or one bad throw, as the Dodgers learned on Howard Johnson’s double-play grounder with one out in the third inning. Alfredo Griffin took a good throw from Willie Randolph to force a charging Kevin Elster for one out, but bounced the ball to first baseman Mickey Hatcher to cost the double play and allow a run to score. Darryl Strawberry followed with a single to bring in the Mets’ third run.

“No, I wasn’t taken out of the double play, nobody can take me out of a double play,” Griffin said. “I just threw it bad.”

The score was still 3-0 after Wetteland retired the first two hitters in the fourth. But after Barry Lyons singled, Viola hit a grounder to Hatcher.

Hatcher threw to Wetteland covering first, but the ball bounced off Wetteland’s chest and glove and Viola was safe. Gregg Jefferies followed with an RBI double, and Elster knocked in two runs with a single to finish Wetteland and--for all intents and purposes--the Dodgers.

“If I can’t catch a ball that hits me in the stomach, there’s something wrong,” Wetteland exclaimed.

He said it.

Dodger Notes

The only Dodgers to collect hits against Frank Viola were Mike Sharperson, who had three, and John Shelby, who had a pinch-hit single. Sharperson improved his batting average to .356, but refused to make a claim for the regular third base job. “I’m trying not to think about it, I’m just trying to do what I can when I’m in there,” Sharperson said. He and Houston’s Eric Yelding have combined to go nine for nine against Viola this season, accounting for one-fourth of Viola’s 36 allowed hits.

Eddie Murray’s hamstring strain was diagnosed as the least severe of such injuries. Dodger trainers said he is available on a day-to-day basis. Murray first felt the pain while leading off first base in the third inning in Friday’s 9-4 loss. When he reached second base after a single by Mike Scioscia, he was briefly joined by trainers while trying to stretch out the leg. Because he remained in the game, few thought anything about it until he arrived at the clubhouse Saturday morning in pain. “It’s enough to keep me from starting, I don’t know about anything else,” Murray said. Many thought he would be used as a pinch-hitter to keep his consecutive games streak alive, but because of the blowout, the Dodgers never needed him. “I didn’t use him because the game wasn’t on the line,” Tom Lasorda said. “I don’t think that streak stuff means anything to him.” Afterward, Murray refused comment.

Kirk Gibson ran the bases at full speed Saturday. He will take his first live batting practice next week. “Knock on wood, we’ll see how it feels,” Gibson said when asked if he could return earlier. “When I start hitting, I’ll take it one day at a time.”