Dodgers Pick Up Where They Left Off, Losing

What happened to the Dodgers Tuesday after their six-day hiatus was exactly what happened to pitcher Tom Candiotti when he was hit in the chest with a line drive.

Their knees buckled and their head spun.

Candiotti survived, but his teammates never quite figured out where they were, losing to the Philadelphia Phillies, 6-2, before 15,654 at Veterans Stadium.

“They play baseball every day for a reason,” Eric Karros said. “If they played it just once a week, it wouldn’t be a competitive sport.”

Slow at the plate, slower on the bases, the Dodgers were anything but competitive, falling behind, 5-0, after five innings and finishing with their fifth consecutive loss.

Terry Mulholland, the Phillies struggling starting pitcher, was just happy to be here. Not only was it his first victory of the season in six starts, it was the first time he has gone more than seven innings.

The Dodgers offense assisted him by being picked off first base twice , by leaving the bases loaded once and by managing only two extra-base hits, both in the ninth inning.

“This is one reason why I don’t like to take days off,” Brett Butler said, shaking his head. “You come back flat.”

Candiotti nearly came back flattened after John Kruk lined a ball off his chest for a run-scoring single with none out in the third inning.

The Dodgers knew Candiotti was in trouble after pitching coach Ron Perranoski ran out and asked how he felt.

“Like I’ve been shot,” Candiotti replied.

He was immediately removed from the game, but he only made it as far as the dugout before dropping to his knees. “Everything was real fuzzy,” Candiotti said. “I don’t even remember the ball hitting me. I know I looked around for it, and it wasn’t moving, so it must have hit me hard.”

He suffered a bruise that extends from the right chest area through the armpit, but initial tests performed in the clubhouse by a local doctor showed no arm problem.

“We’ll see what happens (today), but I think I will be fine,” said Candiotti, who has the Dodgers’ best record, 3-1, and is the scheduled starter Sunday in New York.

Not that he would have survived much longer anyway. In two innings he allowed five hits with two walks and a wild pitch.

He had absolutely no fun in the first inning, when the Phillies scored twice on a two walks, a passed ball by catcher Mike Scioscia, a wild pitch and a two-run single by Dale Sveum.

Not only was Candiotti having difficulty feeling his knuckleball in temperatures that hovered in the low 50s, but he also had a sense of the supernatural.

“There was a wind blowing in my face, and I don’t know where it was coming from,” he said. “Isn’t this an enclosed stadium?”

When he left the game two innings later, another run had scored and runners were on first and second with none out.

Steve Wilson allowed Dave Hollins to score on Darren Daulton’s single, which charged Candiotti with his fourth run and raised his earned-run average to 4.46.

He wasn’t helped by Darryl Strawberry and Butler, both of whom were picked off first base by Mulholland.

When Strawberry was picked off, it ended the first inning with Eric Davis batting. Butler was thrown out with nobody out in the fourth inning.

Sharperson then walked and went to third on Strawberry’s single, meaning Butler probably would have scored. “I get on base, I want to try to spark this thing . . . and he gets me by two feet,” Butler said. “He’s got a good move, and I should know about it. I played with the guy .”

Karros hit his third home run and Sharperson singled in a run in the eighth inning for the Dodgers.

Davis was held hitless for only the seventh time in 20 starts, deepening his slump to two hits in his last 24 at-bats.

Todd Benzinger hit a ball harder than he has in a week, with bases loaded and none out in the fifth inning, but Hollins made a leaping catch at third.

Butler ended that inning with a grounder to Mulholland. Butler failed twice with runners in scoring position, lowering his average in those situations to .174.

“With things go bad, everything goes at once,” Strawberry said. “Hopefully this will end soon.”