No Carrot, Only Stick for Dodgers : Baseball: Misplay on eighth-inning bunt lets Reds escape with a 4-3 victory. Ojeda, Gott suffer injuries.

Another perfect late-inning play by their opponents. Another moment of indecision by the Dodger defense.

Another ball stuck in another glove; another ball that should have been an out but led to another game-losing run.

“Another carrot dangled in front of our faces,” pitcher Bob Ojeda said. “Another chance to win. And we didn’t.”

The Dodgers blew an eighth-inning lead and lost to the Cincinnati Reds, 4-3, before 44,703 at Riverfront Stadium on Friday night.

On a night they overcame injuries to Ojeda and Jim Gott and an early 2-1 deficit to the team with the best record in the league, they lost because they couldn’t handle a bunt.

Bill Doran, batting .176 with runners in scoring position, provided the winning hit when he lined a two-run single to left field against loser Roger McDowell during the eighth.

“But the reason he got the hit was that we put him in that situation,” Todd Benzinger said. “I thought we had it, and they snatched it out from under us.”

The game ended with Brett Butler stranded on third base and Mike Sharperson stranded on first when Mitch Webster hit a foul flyout to right field against Norm Charlton.

But the Dodgers were far more bothered by the bunt, which occurred two batters before Doran’s winning hit. Reliever Gott had walked leadoff hitter Barry Larkin before leaving the game because of a turned left ankle he suffered stepping in a rut on the mound.

Chris Sabo, facing McDowell, dropped a perfect sacrifice bunt down the first-base line.

Benzinger, who had moved to first base from the outfield an inning earlier, grabbed the ball and turned to throw to first base.

But he didn’t see Sharperson there, so he double-clutched, then dropped the ball. Sharperson, running from second base to cover, beat Sabo to the bag, but by then the ball was rolling around Benzinger’s feet and both runners were safe.

Reggie Sanders’ fly ball to deep left field moved the runners to second and third, and they scored moments later, giving the Reds their 13th victory in 17 games.

It gave the Dodgers, losers of seven of 10, another headache.

They have lost 16 one-run games, four more than any other team in he league. They have won six, one fewer than any other team.

And this 11-game trip is only starting.

“You try to play with the words and come out with some confidence,” Benzinger said.

They were confident before the third inning after three singles and an error by catcher Joe Oliver during the second inning had given them a one-run lead.

But starter Ojeda, who had given up one hit in two innings, suffered a strained lower back while warming up for the third. He said he will not miss a start, but could not throw another pitch and was replaced by Steve Wilson.

“I threw three warmup pitches and felt nothing. . . . Then the fourth pitch felt like two ice picks were going in my back,” Ojeda said.

Wilson gave up a two-run homer to Oliver during the fourth inning, but the Dodgers grew confident again after scoring twice during the fifth against Chris Hammond on a run-scoring single by Webster and a run-scoring grounder by Benzinger. With nine singles, the Dodgers have only five extra-base hits in the last seven games.

“I don’t know what to say. . . . We were in it up to the end again,” Sharperson said.

Then came Sabo’s bunt.

“I had the ball, I looked and saw nobody at the bag, maybe Sharpie was late . . . maybe I should have just thrown whether anybody was there or not,” Benzinger said.

Sharperson said he would have been there, even though he acknowledged getting a late start.

“It was sort of a surprise bunt because he didn’t square around,” Sharperson said. “I didn’t break right away, I wasn’t cheating enough.”

But, Sharperson said, “if he had handled it and thrown it, I think we would have gotten him. I know my foot hit the bag before (Sabo’s foot).”

Even though the trainers expect Gott to recover, his earned-run average rose for the first time since May 8 as his scoreless streak was ended at 17 innings.

As if the Dodgers don’t have enough to worry about, they have lost three pitchers to injuries on this Riverfront Stadium mound in less than a year, including Tim Belcher, now a Red.