Dodgers Crumble as Belcher Wilts : Baseball: After pitching three strong innings, he gives up six runs in the fourth and Reds win, 11-6.

Tim Belcher left the Dodgers’ clubhouse at Riverfront Stadium Saturday before he could be asked if anything was wrong.

For those who know Tim Belcher, that meant something was wrong.

Belcher had blown a 3-1 Dodger lead over the Cincinnati Reds by giving up six runs in the fourth inning en route to an 11-6 loss before 46,204.

He gave up seven runs in four innings, his worst start since opening day of 1989. It dropped his record to 5-5 with a 4.32 earned-run average.

It was the seventh time in 14 starts that he has given up at least four runs. It was the fifth time in his last six starts that the Dodgers have lost.

“I don’t know what is wrong, but I know we have to get him back on track,” Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda said after his club’s six-game winning streak ended. “Nights like tonight . . . this was a big, big loss.”

The Dodgers had their chances. The Reds’ Tom Browning, who threw a perfect game against the Dodgers in 1988, gave up five runs on 11 hits in five innings.

Dodger center fielder Stan Javier nearly hit for the cycle. He singled in the first inning, tripled in the third inning, doubled in the sixth inning, and then lined a ball off the warning track in left field in the ninth inning.

The Dodgers also wasted a rare home run by Alfredo Griffin in the third inning. It was his first homer since Aug. 29, 1988, a span of 829 at-bats.

“I did it in Montreal, right?” Griffin asked. “Yeah, I remember those things.”

The Dodgers remember what it was like when all Belcher needed was a home run by Griffin. He finished last season as the hottest pitcher in the National League, going 7-0 with a 1.25 ERA in his last eight starts. He began this season with a three-hit shutout in San Diego.

Observers wondered if he wasn’t pitching too much, too often. His statistics since then have not proved them wrong.

In his ensuing 13 starts he has given up nearly one hit per inning (82 hits in 82 2/3 innings). He has a 4.79 ERA. And he has had several innings such as the fourth inning Saturday.

Entering the inning, he had given up one hit in three innings, a home run by Eric Davis in the second. He had retired six in a row, three on strikeouts.

“Man, in that inning he was throwing the heck out of the ball,” Lasorda said of the third.

Added catcher Rick Dempsey: “I thought to myself, ‘Man, he’s got it tonight.’ ”

Dempsey’s feeling lasted about five minutes. Belcher started the fourth by walking Chris Sabo. Then Eric Davis singled. Then he walked Paul O’Neill.

Then came the one big play that always seems to break Belcher in his losses. Benzinger hit a grounder up the middle that barely skipped past Belcher’s glove. Juan Samuel fielded it behind second base, but Griffin dropped his throw at second base.

“Belcher makes that catch, it’s a double play grounder,” Griffin said. “It just went past him.”’

Belcher then hit Mariano Duncan on the elbow with a pitch with the bases loaded, only the second time he has hit a batter this season. Joe Oliver, batting .228, then lined a two-run single to left to chase Belcher.

After several starts this season Belcher has spoken of a “dead” feeling in his arm. But in his next start, he has usually pitched well and not mentioned it.

“I know his arm has not been feeling as strong, I know he has complained about his shoulder being sore at some point,” Dempsey said. “But he is the kind of guy who isn’t going to come out for nothing.”

Cincinnati is about 140 miles from Belcher’s boyhood home in central Ohio. The stands are always filled with dozens of relatives and friends when he pitches.

But home is not where his arm is. He is 1-5 with a 7.15 ERA here.

“All I know is, we need him,” Lasorda said of Belcher, who now has the worst ERA among the four Dodger starters. “We need to get him right.”

Dodger Notes

Kal Daniels was scratched from the starting lineup because of lower back pain he said first occurred when he singled in the fifth inning Friday. . . . The Dodgers dropped to 9 1/2 games behind the Reds in the West. . . . The game was delayed twice because of rain for a total of 61 minutes. The Dodgers were trailing, 11-6, by the first delay, in the sixth inning. Four minutes after the game resumed, it was delayed again.

Two little-used Dodger relief pitchers showed their rustiness Saturday. Mike Hartley, pitching in only his third game since his June 11 recall from triple-A Albuquerque, gave up two runs in two innings. Don Aase, pitching in his first game in 10 days, gave up two runs in two innings, on a homer by Chris Sabo. Aase has a tender right shoulder. . . . Relief pitcher Ray Searage made another rehabilitation start for Class-A Bakersfield Saturday night. He will start again today, and if he feels good Monday, might be activated next week.

Stan Javier has a 12-game hitting streak, during which he has 18 hits in 40 at-bats for a .450 average that has pushed his overall average to .341. . . . Kirk Gibson, nursing a sore right groin, ran in the outfield and took about 40 easy swings in a batting cage Saturday. . . . The firing of Russ Nixon as manager of the Atlanta Braves Friday kept alive a streak: For four consecutive years, the manager who has posed next to Tom Lasorda for the National League group photo at the winter meetings has been fired the next season. Nixon follows Chuck Tanner, Hal Lanier and Pete Rose.