Dodgers Make It Look Queasy, 15-12 : Baseball: They lose to Phillies in 11th inning after bullpen wastes two leads in first nine innings.

The Dodger bullpen has blown another game in the late innings.

Philadelphia’s Rod Booker hit a three-run triple off a weary Jay Howell in the 11th inning Saturday night to give the Phillies a 15-12 victory, the fourth Dodger loss caused by the bullpen in the late innings this season.

Before what remained of a crowd of 44,703 at Dodger Stadium, Howell hit Ricky Jordan with a pitch, gave up a single by John Kruk, and one out later Dickie Thon singled to load the bases for Booker, who came to the plate one out later. He hit the ball into the right-center field gap, scoring three runs.

Howell should not have even been in the game, as the Dodgers wanted to rest him after his strong comeback from knee surgery Friday night, during which he pitched two innings. But Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda had little choice, and brought Howell into the game to start the 10th.

The game began, and appeared to end, with Kal Daniels’ grand slam in the fourth inning. That gave the Dodgers a 8-5 lead.

But the Dodgers, who already knew their middle relief pitchers are not very dependable, learned they are also not very original. Thirteen days after the Dodger bullpen blew a 5-1 lead against Philadelphia, they blew two leads against against the Phillies.

Mike Maddux, the second reliever to follow an ineffective Fernando Valenzuela, gave up a run in the sixth inning. Two innings later, Tim Crews gave up four consecutive hits, two runs scoring on Kruk’s single, to make the score 8-8.

The Dodgers appeared to win it again in the bottom of the eighth, when Alfredo Griffin scored on Darrel Akerfelds’ wild pitch, and Daniels later singled for his fifth RBI of the night.

But Don Aase and John Wetteland combined to blow another Dodger lead, and nearly the game, by giving up four runs in the top of the ninth. The keys were a two-run single by Tommy Herr and an RBI grounder by Jordan that shortstop Griffin threw into the Phillie dugout to account for another run.

Where was Howell? The Dodgers didn’t want to use him because on Friday night he threw his first two innings in 27 days after arthroscopic knee surgery.

But 10 minutes after the Phillies took the lead in the ninth, the Dodger offense rescued the bullpen again. With the Dodgers trailing, 12-10, John Shelby hit a two-run double off reliever Roger McDowell. The Dodgers appeared ready to win it then, as Shelby moved to third base on catcher Darren Daulton’s fielding error with no outs.

But after the Phillies intentionally walked both Griffin and Mike Scioscia, Juan Samuel laid down a poor suicide squeeze bunt that resulted in Shelby being thrown out at the plate. Stan Javier then flied out to shallow left field and Mickey Hatcher hit a grounder to shortstop Thon to end the inning.

In the eighth inning, Griffin nearly became the Dodgers’ hero. After he singled against Akerfelds, the Dodgers took a chance on a hit-and-run play with Scioscia batting.

Scioscia hit a grounder to Herr, who caught it near second base and tried to step on the bag. But Griffin was already there, and in the confusion among those two and shortstop Thon, the ball popped from Herr’s glove and rolled into center field.

Griffin went to third on the error. On the next pitch, as Griffin danced off third base, Akerfelds threw the ball into the dirt and Griffin scored. The Dodgers added another run later in the inning on Daniels’ RBI single.

The eighth inning nearly overshadowed Daniels’ first dramatic statement as a Dodger: a 400-foot grand slam against Don Carman that gave the Dodgers that 8-5 lead in the fourth inning.

Daniels’ first career grand slam was laced with answers for those who questioned the trade that brought him here from Cincinnati last season.

It came in his 32nd game in this 36-game season, not a bad attendance mark for a player who some said would miss many games because of bad knees. And it came against a left-handed pitcher, who the left-handed batting Daniels is not supposed to be able to hit.

The night featured a couple of other brash Dodger statements.

--Javier, the outfielder acquired from Oakland for Willie Randolph last week, proved that perhaps he can make the Dodgers not miss their favorite player. He saved a run in the first inning with a diving catch in center field, then set up Daniels’ heroics with a two-out, two-strike RBI single in the fourth.

--Fernando Valenzuela, who many thought had returned to his earlier form with three victories in his last four starts, proved that such thinking is still premature. Once again, he looked more like 1988.

Valenzuela was given a 3-0 Dodger lead against previously unbeaten Phillies’ starter Dennis Cook in the second inning, but gave it back by giving up five runs on six hits in the fourth inning. He finally departed with one out in the fifth inning after giving up five runs on nine hits, a season high in both categories.

By then, the Dodgers were already in the lead thanks to Daniels.