Dodger Frustration Is Now Out on Tape : Baseball: Lasorda ejected when replay seems to show umpire made wrong call. Astros win, 8-4, but L.A.’s lead remains 1 1/2 games over Braves.

Baseball hasn’t introduced the instant replay for overruling missed calls by umpires, but Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda gave it a try Sunday. It didn’t work.

Neither did much else the Dodgers tried, as they lost to the last-place Houston Astros, 8-4, before a Dodger Stadium sellout crowd of 43,122, to split a four-game series.

The play that got Lasorda ejected for the third time this season came in the sixth inning as the Dodgers were trying to rally from a 6-4 deficit. They’d already had a man thrown out at third base on a sacrifice attempt earlier in the inning, before Brett Butler singled to left and Jose Offerman tried to score from second.

Left fielder Luis Gonzalez fired a strike to catcher Tony Eusebio, who blocked the plate and applied a tag. However, Offerman slid in from the side and appeared to stick a hand on the plate before Eusebio tagged him on the helmet. Plate umpire Mike Winters called Offerman out. Instant replays appeared to show otherwise.

Instead of a run in, two on and one out, the Dodgers had two out with nothing to show for it. A pop fly to right field ended the inning.

Lasorda went into his office, checked the replay on his television, came back and told Winters he missed the play. Winters tossed him before he even left the dugout for the more intimate discussion that followed.

“Did you see the play?” Lasorda asked reporters who were asking the same question. “Was he safe or out?” Safe, he was told. “Well I saw it the same way you did. That’s why I got thrown out of the game, I guess. He missed the play. First of all, he was out of position. (In the replay,) he’s not even in the picture when the play is being made, so you know he’s out of position.

“I came in here and saw it. From the dugout I said, ‘You missed it, you really missed the play.’ Then he threw me out. I guess that’s what they do when you disagree. I didn’t even use profanity to get thrown out. He says, ‘You’re gone.’ Then I used profanity. He still thinks he hasn’t missed it. He’ll see it (on television), but what the hell good does that do us?”

Lasorda could have cursed the various wasted opportunities and mistakes the Dodgers had Sunday.

After jumping to a 2-0 start in the first inning against Mark Portugal (9-5), the Dodgers fell behind, 4-2, as the Astros scored three runs against Mike Morgan (10-7) in the second inning and another in the third.

The Dodgers tied the game in the fourth, 4-4, but could have had more. Morgan came to the plate with a run in and runners on first and second and tried to sacrifice, but the bunt was turned into a double play with the lead runner erased, and Butler’s subsequent single scored only one run. In the sixth, Morgan came up in a similar situation and bunted into a forceout at third.

In the seventh, Kal Daniels led off with a single and stole second base, but failed to tag and advance to third on Eddie Murray’s fly to deep right-center. So, Juan Samuel’s single moved him only to third, where he was stranded.

“We had a lot of opportunities to score runs and didn’t,” Lasorda said. “We’ve had a lot of men on base, a lot of scoring opportunities, and haven’t cashed them in.”

Houston took the lead for good in the sixth with two more runs off Morgan, then added two more in the eighth off Roger McDowell, including Gonzalez’s 12th home run.

The Astros have won eight of 14 meetings with the Dodgers this season, frustrating the leaders of the National League West in their attempt to gain some breathing room on second-place Atlanta. The Braves lost in San Diego Sunday to remain 1 1/2 games behind. The Astros have won five of their last seven meetings with the Dodgers and could have swept this series, both losses coming in extra innings.

“I’m glad to see them get out of town,” Butler said. “The frustration comes in knowing we have a great team and we’ve sputtered offensively. The pitching has carried us. If we did half of what we’re capable of (on offense), we’d be head and shoulders above everybody. There’s no pressure in this locker room, only frustration. We know the kind of talent we have here. We’ve got 40 games to get it right.”

Darryl Strawberry, who doubled in a first-inning run, said the loss was not devastating but should be instructive. “You just know you have to play better baseball, you know you can’t make those mistakes,” he said. “(But) we’ve struggled a lot and continued to hang in there.”

Morgan said it’s too early to worry about the Braves or anyone else. “We’ve got to worry about ourselves,” he said. “It was just a frustrating day all the way around for the team. But it’s not really life or death, it’s business.”

And when it’s against the Astros, it seems to be funny business.