Dodgers Pine for Murray : Baseball: Their bats are quieter, their fielding diminished without him in 4-2 loss to Padres.

When Eddie Murray walked slowly to home plate in the ninth inning Friday as a surprise pinch-hitter against the San Diego Padres, thundering applause accompanied every painful step.

When he drew a walk to load the bases as the potential winning run, the thousands remaining at Dodger Stadium cheered and rose in unison.

But the cheers soon faded. Jeff Hamilton hit a grounder to shortstop Tony Fernandez, who threw to second base to finish the Dodgers’ 4-2 loss to the San Diego Padres in their home opener before a sellout crowd of 49,676.

If Murray could have only made his dramatic entrance sooner. . . . about eight innings sooner.

As the Dodgers’ first defeat in three games this season illustrated through questionable fielding and poor hitting, Murray’s sore right hip is becoming a major pain.

“Not having Eddie in our lineup is already causing plenty of problems,” Darryl Strawberry said. “We have to have him back, simple as that.”

Most of those problems Friday involved Strawberry, who went hitless in four at-bats in a disappointing home debut.

In the third inning, with two outs and the Padres leading, 3-0, Jerald Clark lined a single to right field in front of Strawberry, sending Fred McGriff running from second base.

McGriff rounded third and attempted to score despite Strawberry’s strong arm. Strawberry threw toward home plate, but the ball was cut off in front of catcher Mike Scioscia by Stan Javier, who was making his first major league start at first base.

Clark was eventually caught in a rundown between first and second, but McGriff scored, and the Dodgers eventually lost to the Padres for the 32nd time in their last 54 meetings.

“I knew I had the man dead, and Scioscia said I had him dead,” Strawberry said. “But really, you can’t blame Stan. He was making his first start there, right? I mean, after all, the man is not a first baseman.

“Like I said, we really need Eddie.”

They also really needed Murray Friday on offense, where hitters who had 19 hits in the previous two games struggled for six singles and one double against Greg Harris, making his first start since 1989.

Perhaps Murray would not have hit the sometimes baffling Harris, who is 3-0 against the Dodgers in 15 career appearances with a 0.94 earned-run average. But he might have made it easier for the others to hit him.

Strawberry, who normally bats in front of Murray, is hitless in seven at-bats and has been hit by a pitch since Murray left the lineup after the season opener.

“I haven’t seen any pitches since Eddie has been out,” Strawberry said. “I really miss him batting behind me. I can really tell the difference when he is gone.”

Murray doesn’t know when he will be back. He says the pain “comes and goes.”

The X-rays taken Friday morning on his hip were inconclusive. Team doctors are calling it an inflammation of the sacroiliac, which involves the hip and back.

Murray said he has started taking anti-inflammatory drugs. “So maybe we’ll know more Sunday, when the drugs have taken effect,” he said.

In the meantime, he said he will report to the clubhouse today for treatment and if it feels good enough to move, he will play. If it doesn’t, he will sit, and the Dodgers will suffer.

When management denied Murray a contract extension this spring on the chance that he will leave the team via free agency this winter, perhaps they did not count on days like this.

“You cannot lose a hitter like Eddie Murray and not feel it,” Manager Tom Lasorda said.

Even pitcher Bob Ojeda felt it Friday as he flopped in his Dodger debut, giving up four runs and eight hits in five innings. The Dodgers backed him with only one run on four hits during his stay on the mound.

“This was not a debut I wanted,” said Ojeda, who went 4-0 with 2.17 ERA this spring. “It was one of those days when things didn’t come together.”

Besides Javier’s fielding blunder, Ojeda was also victimized by a grounder that shortstop Alfredo Griffin fielded deep behind third base but dropped when he was distracted by the glove of third baseman Lenny Harris.

Benito Santiago reached first base to start the second inning on that play, then eventually scored on Darrin Jackson’s fly ball.

“I thought Lenny was going to catch it, it was a tough play,” said Griffin, who dropped another grounder in the ninth inning, causing the first boos of the season at Dodger Stadium. “Lenny distracted me.”

The Padres scored three runs in the third on Clark’s fly ball, a grounder by McGriff that scooted under second baseman Juan Samuel’s glove and a grounder that Harris could not pull out of his glove in time to throw home.

“This is a tough life . . . and a tough game,” Strawberry said.

If nothing else Friday, Strawberry and his teammates finally got that realization out of the way.