Harris Throws Away Morgan’s Good Work

Many people in the Dodger organization thought they would hate the color blue before they felt this way. But Tuesday night, the surprising truth was once again both obvious and painful.

Sometimes they miss Jeff Hamilton.

Lenny Harris, one of the disabled Hamilton’s two replacements at third base, made a wild throw to home plate in the eighth inning that started the Atlanta Braves on a roll of six unearned runs, leading the Braves to a 6-4 victory before 29,878 at Dodger Stadium.

“I screwed the whole game up,” Harris said afterward.

At least he was calm, as opposed to John Wetteland, who was informed before the game that he was being sent to the bullpen and would miss at least today’s start in favor of Mike Maddux. He ended his night by ordering the clubhouse attendants to burn his baseball socks in the dugout.

“I want those socks off the face of the earth,” Wetteland said.

The socks, because of their material, wouldn’t catch fire. But losing a game like this can do that to a team.

Before Harris’ throw, the Dodgers led, 1-0, and appeared headed for a second consecutive victory despite getting just one hit in seven innings against starter Pete Smith.

Before the throw, Dodger starter Mike Morgan had a six-hit shutout, with only four of those hits leaving the infield.

And before the throw, the Dodgers were on their way to making up the ground they lost to Cincinnati, which was losing for a second consecutive night in San Francisco.

In seconds, everything changed.

With the bases loaded and one out in the eighth after two singles and a walk, Ron Gant hit a hard bouncer to the left of Harris. He charged, grabbed it, and threw it past the outstretched glove of catcher Mike Scioscia. The ball rolled to the backstop, and two runs scored.

“It was a tough play, Harris was going to his left, he had to turn around at a bad angle and throw against his body,” shortstop Alfredo Griffin said. “A very tough play.”

Harris agreed--sort of. “Maybe it was tough, but I should have had the guy,” he said. “I was going to home plate all the way, and I made the throw in time, and I should have had him. I tried, I tried . . . and it was all my mistake.”

One out after the throw, Dave Justice knocked in two runs with a bloop double. Dale Murphy singled to center for another run. Jeff Blauser trickled a double down the left-field line for yet another run. Morgan left the game after allowing nine hits and six runs, all unearned.

The Dodgers rebounded with three runs in the bottom of the ninth. And with Mike Sharperson on first base after a two-run single, Kirk Gibson came to the plate representing the tying run. But Gibson fouled out to left field, making him hitless in five at-bats, and hitless in 13 at-bats since returning to the lineup Saturday.

“This was a tough, tough game to manage,” said Tom Lasorda, whose team remained 10 games behind the Cincinnati Reds but fell two games behind second-place San Diego.

And what was that you were saying about Hamilton? All last winter, when it became obvious that Dodger vice president Fred Claire wanted him to remain as the team’s third baseman, Hamilton was criticized for his hitting. For his mobility in the field. For his aggressiveness.

When Hamilton underwent arthroscopic shoulder surgery May 4 while hitting just .125, many shrugged.

Since then Harris and platoon mate Sharperson are batting a combined .324 while starting in his place, with only seven total errors.

But one thing Hamilton always did was make the routine play. Several times since he went down, the Dodgers could have used such a play.

In keeping with Harris’ throw, Tuesday night was anything but routine for the Dodgers. The Braves’ Smith threw a perfect game for five innings before they broke it up and scored a run--without a hit.

Juan Samuel led off the sixth by drawing a walk on four pitches. He stole second, took third on a throwing error by catcher Greg Olson, and scored on a perfect suicide squeeze bunt by Morgan. Despite the loss, Morgan (6-4) improved his earned-run average from 3.09 to 2.78.

Dodger Notes

In what may be the most unusual confession of the Dodger season so far, Juan Samuel admitted Tuesday that he had unwisely attempted to steal third base in the eighth inning against the Braves Monday because he wanted to protect batter Ramon Martinez’s chance for a strikeout record. Samuel was easily thrown out for the third out of the inning, giving Martinez a chance to take the mound in the ninth without having to bat against reliever Dwayne Henry. Martinez did not record a strikeout in the ninth, finishing with a Dodger record-tying 18. Samuel said that because he had hustled from first to second base on a grounder by Alfredo Griffin on the preceding play, he was afraid the Braves thought he was trying to show them up, and he didn’t want Martinez to pay the price. “I didn’t want to see Martinez get hit in the head with a pitch,” Samuel said. “I shouldn’t have been running on the ball by Griffin, not with a 6-0 lead. I didn’t want them to think I was rubbing it in, and then hurt Ramon. I just wanted to get him back on the mound with a chance for the record. So I took off.”

Mickey Hatcher, who made two diving stops at first base Monday, said he had thoughts about purposely mishandling further grounders so Martinez would have more chances at strikeouts. “I was thinking, if I get another ball, should I just boot it enough so the guy is safe, but the runners don’t advance more than one base?” Hatcher said. “Deep down, I don’t know if I could have done it. But I sure did think about it.” Hatcher said he felt bad about robbing Martinez of two potential strikeouts. “I was out there saying, ‘Please, don’t hit me the ball,”’ Hatcher said. “I think everybody in the field was saying that.”