The Pain of a Near-Miss Turns Bittersweet : Dodgers: The frustration of their pursuit of the Reds leaves the players with mixed emotions.

They lost a game and with it any substantial hope of catching the Reds, but the Dodgers gained a precious bit of knowledge Sunday after their 6-2 loss to the Giants and Cincinnati’s weekend sweep of the Padres left them five games behind Cincinnati with nine games to play.

Deep as their disappointment ran Sunday, the Dodgers believe that it was better to have come close to the division title and lost than to never have come close at all.

“It hurts a lot. I don’t really know any other word for it,” said John Wetteland, who pitched two perfect relief innings against the Giants as the fifth in a parade of six pitchers.

“It hurts more to come close and fall short because when something is within your grasp, you pretty much give it all you’ve got to get it. I’m not saying you don’t otherwise, but when you’re so close, there’s intangibles that aren’t there at other times, an intensity you feel.”

They felt frustrated each time they looked up at the Dodger Stadium scoreboard over the weekend and saw the Reds ahead of the Padres.

“A split in the doubleheader (Saturday) would have meant a lot to us in the standings and emotionally,” Mickey Hatcher said. “To see the Padres lose all four and Cincinnati win all four definitely made it tough on us. We were hoping to get help from then and we didn’t.

“We’ve come a long way. We never expected to even be in it. To get where we are, we have to be very positive. It’s just that circumstances are against us now because of the situation we’re in. As long as there’s an opportunity still there, we’ve got to believe we can do it.”

That they cut a 12 1/2-game deficit after the All-Star break to 3 1/2 last Thursday will have to be consolation enough.

“The way we performed in the second half I think was brilliant,” said pitcher Tim Crews, who had an inconsistent summer. “The way we’ve competed and gone about our jobs professionally has been great. I think we can take that into next year and gain encouragement from it. To finish strong, like we are, is always a good sign.

“Coming as close as we have, it’s been exciting to see the club work the way it has. To be 15 back at the All-Star break and get within 3 1/2 is an accomplishment. There’s nine left--they could go into a skid and we could win every game. Who knows?”

Manager Tom Lasorda knew his club wasn’t getting anywhere Sunday, after an error by first baseman Eddie Murray in the third set up an unearned run that gave San Francisco a 4-0 lead.

“It was a game we had to win. We couldn’t afford to lose, here at home,” Lasorda said between bites of chicken. “We’ve got to play better than that. And we got no help whatsoever. We win two out of three (from the Giants) and lose a game and a half. You figure that one out. The thing is, we had to get help from somebody else and we didn’t get any from San Diego.”

Most of all, Lasorda regretted that the Dodgers didn’t help themselves more than they did.

“It doesn’t make any difference that nobody expected us to be in that position. We got in it, and we could have done something about it,” he said.