Samuel’s Bravado Earning Dodger Bravos No Longer : Baseball: He strands four runners in 2-1 loss to the Cardinals. Braves are within a game of lead.

His swagger is gone. His grimace of intimidation is gone. The swell of anticipation felt in the Dodger dugout every time Juan Samuel approaches home plate with a bat is long gone.

Most of all, the disciplined swing is gone, as evidenced once again Friday when Samuel stranded four runners in the final four innings as the Dodgers lost to the St. Louis Cardinals, 2-1, before 40,465 at Busch Stadium.

The game was officially lost when Milt Thompson hit an eighth-inning double against relief pitcher Tim Crews and scored two batters later on Jose Oquendo’s fly ball off John Candelaria.

But the game was also lost because of a man who once made the Dodgers marvel. These days, Samuel only makes them wince.

“During the first half of the season, when you would get two strikes on Sammy, he would get a stance in the batters box like, ‘All right, come on, I’ll show you,’ ” Brett Butler said. “But now it’s like, well, he’s up there feeling for the ball.”

Partly because of Samuel’s second-half slump, the Dodgers barely remain in first place. While they were losing for the 18th time in their last 23 road games, the second-place Atlanta Braves were winning for the eighth time in 12 games, and pulled as close as one game for the first time in 10 days.

“But we aren’t looking back . . . we started doing that sort of thing too early, and we’ve decided, enough,” said pitcher Bob Ojeda, frustrated again after giving up one run and two hits. “We’ve decided to forget who is behind us.”

When looking at themselves, the Dodgers are increasingly looking at one person.

Darryl Strawberry has ended his slump. Eddie Murray, with two more hits Friday, is ending his slump. Kal Daniels, who drove in the Dodgers’ only run with a fly ball in the eighth inning, is also making noise again.

But Samuel? His most flamboyant act Friday was throwing his batting helmet high into the air after grounding out on a high, possible ball-four pitch in the fourth inning.

Two innings later, with the Dodgers still trailing after Ojeda gave up a first-inning run, Lenny Harris started a potential rally with a bunt single. Two outs later, Murray singled to right field, moving Harris to second.

With Samuel at bat, Harris went to third and Murray to second on a wild pitch by starter Jose DeLeon. But Samuel ended the inning by hitting a grounder to shortstop.

The official out was made when the ball hit Murray in the foot, but shortstop Ozzie Smith would have undoubtedly made the play anyway.

In the eighth inning, Samuel stranded two more. Butler started the inning with a single to center. He went to third on a bad throw by catcher Tom Pagnozzi after Harris bunted, the throw bouncing off Harris’ shoulder and hitting baseman Jose Oquendo’s jaw.

Daniels then scored Butler on a fly ball to left. One out later, Murray singled to left, moving Harris to third and bringing up Samuel again.

This time, after Samuel hit a long foul ball down the left-field line, he flied out to right field to end the threat.

“He is just not hitting, it’s that simple,” Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda said.

How can something so good disappear so quickly?

On June 10, Samuel was .340 with seven home runs and 35 runs batted in in 208 at-bats.

In 245 at-bats since then, he is batting .233 with three home runs and 14 RBIs.

The Dodgers spent the first half of the season boasting about how Samuel finally had found a home batting second behind Butler. They were excited about how he had learned to swing only at good pitches and hit the ball to the opposite field.

Samuel was moved to sixth in the batting order a week ago. He has four hits in his last 33 at-bats and is increasing looking like the hitter who batted .217 before the All-Star break last season.

“He’s doing what all of us do in slumps, he’s swinging at a lot of bad pitches again,” Strawberry said.

Teammates are saying that suddenly, not only is Samuel’s batting average falling (to .283), but his confidence is waning.

“I understand that batting him sixth is good for the team, because we need a second-place hitter who is not struggling,” Butler said.

“But I don’t think it was good for Sammy, personally. After all he went through to establish himself as the second hitter . . . not everybody switches positions in the batting order when they are slumping, and when Sammy sees that he has to switch, it’s hard.”

Samuel does not speak with the media, but his final-month mission requires no explanation.

Said Butler: “Sammy and I were clicking so good in the first half . . . we really need him now.”

* ANGELS WIN: Jim Abbott gets his personal-best 13th victory as the Angels beat the Boston Red Sox, 4-1. C8.