Dodgers Take Bite Off Lead : Baseball: Margin cut to 4 1/2 games as team defeats Astros, 7-5, in 11 innings. Sharperson and Harris get key hits.

When the Dodgers arrived here early Monday morning, five games out of first place with nine games remaining, their spirit on the verge of collapse, a funny thing happened.

Nearly a dozen of them held an impromptu party at an all-night hamburger joint.

“The hamburgers were terrible, greasy, nasty--but it was great,” pitcher Jim Gott said. “We all sat around laughing and joking and getting rid of the game.

“That kind of thing just does not happen on baseball teams these days. But it happened to us.”

In a different setting Monday night, it happened again. Overcoming a 3-2 deficit in the eighth inning, then surviving poor relief pitching that nearly gave the game back, the Dodgers defeated the Houston Astros, 7-5, in 11 innings.

Before 6,936 at the Astrodome, the winning inning against Astro reliever Dave Smith was as far-fetched as the Dodgers’ refusal to pack in their championship hopes.

Alfredo Griffin drew his 29th walk in 137 games. Mike Sharperson knocked him in with his second triple this season. Lenny Harris added an RBI single, his first hit in 13 at-bats. Gott retired the side in the bottom of the inning to complete a scoreless 2 1/3 innings and earn his third victory.

Because the National League West-leading Cincinnati Reds did not play, the victory moved the Dodgers to within 4 1/2 games with eight remaining. The off-season plans remain on hold.

“If we do win it, it will still be a gift,” Griffin said.

Said Gott: “But this team takes it one game at a time as much as any other team I’ve been around. Nothing seems to get us too up or down.”

Not that they weren’t down Sunday afternoon after a 6-2 loss to San Francisco, which coupled with the completion of the Reds’ four-game sweep in San Diego, appeared to end their season.

“On Sunday it was like a Game 7 where you are losing 1-0 and come up three times with the bases loaded and don’t deliver,” Harris said. “It was a terrible feeling.

“But today, you didn’t hear anybody talking about which flight they were taking home after the season, or what they were doing during the winter. We were still out there hollering, still kind of feeling that we have hope.”

The Dodgers’ 10th extra-inning win in 13 chances this season overshadowed a three-hit performance by Kal Daniels, who raised his average to .295.

Eddie Murray had two hits, but those were his only hits in his last 11 at-bats as he fades in his chase for the batting championship. Murray is batting .326, nine points behind Willie McGee, whose .335 average will not change because he has since been traded to Oakland.

Fortunately for Fernando Valenzuela, it also overshadowed his pitching performance. Valenzuela, who can be a free agent at the end of the season, remained in his ill-timed slump by allowing three runs and nine hits in six innings.

In his last five starts, he is 1-2 with a 7.27 earned-run average.

The Dodgers took a 2-1 lead after three innings, fell behind 3-2, then scored three times in the top of the eighth to take a 5-3 lead. That inning featured an RBI single by Murray and a two-run single by Juan Samuel.

But against relievers Tim Crews and Jay Howell, the Astros rebounded to tie the score in the eighth inning. Crews, who has given up five runs in his last 4 1/3 relief innings, fueled the Astros’ rally by allowing a one-out home run to former Dodger Franklin Stubbs in the eighth.

Stubbs, who could not find a spot in the Dodger lineup before being traded at the end of spring training, has hit four of his 20 homers against the Dodgers.

Ken Caminiti then bounced a single past second baseman Samuel. Crews was replaced by Howell, with Rick Dempsey replacing catcher Mike Scioscia in a double switch. Caminiti immediately tested Dempsey by stealing second. It was one of four steals against the Dodgers.

After hitting pinch-hitter Eric Anthony, Howell gave up an RBI single to Rafael Ramirez to tie the score before retiring Gerald Young on a double-play grounder to end the threat.

Dodger Notes

In the third inning, Juan Samuel stole his first base since Aug. 14. In the eighth inning, he stole another base, giving him more steals in one game than he had in his previous 41 games combined. Samuel leads the Dodgers with 37 steals. . . . The home run by former Dodger Franklin Stubbs in the eighth inning made him the second left-handed hitter in franchise history to have 20 or more homers in a season. The other was Walter Bond of the Houston Colt 45’s in 1964.

It appears Mike Hartley has started his last game this season for the Dodgers. His side was sore again Monday, and he has decided to stop throwing for two or three days. The Dodgers will pitch Dennis Cook in Hartley’s spot on Friday, and then probably again on the final day of the season to give him an early tryout for a spot in the rotation next season. “I’ve always felt Cook was better as a starter than as a reliever, so we’d like to try him there,” Manager Tom Lasorda said. After a shaky relief appearance, Cook won his first game as a Dodger starter Saturday by allowing the San Francisco Giants one run on five hits in 6 1/3 innings. Hartley, who in six games as a starter was 3-2 with a 2.52 ERA including a three-hit shutout of Atlanta, said he wants to return to the rotation next season. “I enjoy starting, and I am going to work hard to earn a job this spring,” he said.

Mickey Hatcher, who did not play Monday, will probably set a career low in games played. He has played in 80 games with eight remaining. His career low is 88 games, for the Dodgers in 1988.