Another Game, Another Loss for Skidding Dodgers

A Dodger loss, once visible only in the box scores, is now showing up in other places.

Wednesday night you could see it on Tim Belcher’s face, which froze in a stare toward the backstop while a home run by Glenn Davis traveled 400 feet into the seats behind him.

You could see it Lenny Harris’ glove, which he pounded into the dirt next to third base after a run-scoring single by Mike Scott sneaked past him.

You could hear it in the resigned voices in the clubhouse after Houston won, 5-1, to sweep a three-game series.

“The hits don’t mean nothing, I would give anything for a win,” said Harris, who had his fifth three-hit game of the season.

“Anything?” asked Kal Daniels nearby. “Would you give your car?”

“Anything,” said Harris, who drives a rather expensive car.

The Dodgers have already given in an attempt to win. A sacrifice that came to mind Wednesday was Franklin Stubbs, who was traded this spring for left-handed relief pitcher Terry Wells.

Stubbs knocked a fastball from Jim Gott 410 feet in the eighth inning for his third home run against the Dodgers this season, his second of this series and his eighth overall. Stubbs added a single and scored in the fourth inning, adding fuel to the criticism of those Dodgers who quietly wonder, just who is Terry Wells?

“For the rest of his life, every time he plays us, he’s going to hurt us,” Chris Gwynn said of Stubbs. “I don’t know what management was thinking, but I know I always thought he could hit. You don’t hit 23 homers in one year (1986) and not be able to hit.”

Because he could play only first base or the outfield, the Dodgers could find no room for Stubbs in their lineup. Wells has walked 47 in 51 2/3 innings in triple-A Albuquerque.

Stubbs, who is hitting .250 overall and has equaled his homer output of last season, smiled and said that the Dodgers’ loss was his gain.

“I’m playing for a guy now who turns me loose and lets me play,” Stubbs said, referring to Houston Manager Art Howe. “If I have a bad game, I’m not always worrying about my at-bats. I know I’ll get a chance to play.”

Added Harris: “It seems like it always happens. When you trade a guy, he comes back and whacks it out on you.”

The Dodgers, who scored just eight runs in this three-game series, with an earned-run average of 10.21 from their three starting pitchers, are certainly being whacked.

Last season their hopes were crushed in early June when they were swept in four games in the Astrodome, including a record 22-inning loss. This season, as they leave here with 12 losses in their last 16 games, history may have repeated itself.

“The problem is, we got four teams in this division going in one direction, and Cincinnati and us going on the other direction,” said Belcher, referring to the National League West.

The Dodgers are in third place, 9 1/2 games behind the first-place Reds. But after this 1-5 trip, they are no longer looking in that direction. They are just two games ahead of fifth-place Houston and 3 1/2 games out of the cellar.

The Dodgers were frustrated Wednesday from the start, when Harris began the game with a double off Scott and moved to third base on a sacrifice bunt by Stan Javier. Kirk Gibson and Eddie Murray struck out to end the inning.

Belcher, who lost for the first time in his last six starts, looked great for three innings. But to start the fourth he walked Bill Doran, allowed a single to Stubbs and Davis homered on a pitch that was so bad, it caused Belcher to freeze. By the time he turned to look, the ball was over the fence and the game was over. It was Davis’ league-leading 19th homer, and his ninth in 14 games.

“He doesn’t hit that pitch out, he ought to give the game up,” said Belcher, 4-4 with a 3.87 ERA. “I ought to have just set it up on a tee for him.”

From there the game was left in the capable hands of Scott (4-6), who suddenly brightened amid a poor season and gave up only one run on three hits in seven innings. The only Dodger run came on a home run by Javier, his first in the National League.

Dodger Notes

Jim Poole, as expected, was recalled from double-A San Antonio Wednesday to serve as the Dodgers’ left-handed reliever. The Dodgers’ major league staff has been closely watching Poole, 24, since he was named their minor league pitcher of the year last season for Class-A Vero Beach after going 11-4 with a 1.61 earned-run average and 93 strikeouts in 78 1/3 innings. This season he was 2-5 with a 2.81 ERA for San Antonio, with 39 strikeouts and 15 walks in 32 innings. However, the recall was still a surprise to both Poole and his Dodger teammates. “I was incredibly stunned,” said Poole, who thought he was being traded when contacted by San Antonio Manager John Shoemaker in a Midland, Tex., hotel around midnight Tuesday. “You always hope to make the major leagues, but like this. . . . It is really something. This could be a day, a week, two months, who knows? I just want to make a good impression.” Said a Dodger teammate about Poole: “What’s that guy’s name?” An informal survey revealed that no Dodger player had ever seen him pitch, and only a couple of players had ever heard of him.