Padres Prevail as Dodgers Have That Stranded Look

As the Dodgers learned Tuesday, it is difficult to handle the long and tortuous climb out of last place when your shoulders are burdened with bats.

A second consecutive late-inning comeback attempt was stalled in the Dodgers’ 2-1 loss to the San Diego Padres when they stranded five runners in the final two innings because of called third strikes.

Stan Javier left runners on second and third by striking out against Mike Maddux in the eighth, then Dave Hansen ended the game by leaving the bases loaded on a strikeout against Maddux in the ninth.

Hansen’s strikeout was disputed, Javier’s was not, but they both resulted in a season-high 14 runners left on base while dropping the Dodgers’ record in one-run games to 8-21.

“It looked good for us in the last inning again tonight--but we just couldn’t finish it off,” Eric Karros said.

Before 27,858 at Dodger Stadium, Gary Sheffield did finish the Dodgers off when he came off the bench in the seventh inning to drive in Tim Teufel from third base with the eventual winning run against Ramon Martinez.

The hit was not a home run, even though Sheffield is tied for the league lead with 15. It was not even a triple or a double or a long fly ball, hits that Sheffield has used to hurt the Dodgers earlier this season.

It was a single that bounced over the head of Martinez, scooted underneath the glove of lunging shortstop Jose Offerman and died behind second base.

It was enough to give Bruce Hurst his fifth victory in six decisions after he allowed one run in six innings.

“I’ll take it,” Sheffield said with a smile.

The Dodgers could have used one of those hits in the eighth and ninth innings, when they mounted two-out comeback attempts similar to the three comebacks they used to win Monday’s thriller.

In the eighth, after Mike Scioscia had reached first base on an error by Fred McGriff and Offerman had walked, pinch-runner Harris and Offerman executed a double steal.

It didn’t bother Maddux, who won a nine-pitch duel by fooling Javier, who is batting .175. After the pitch, Javier simply shook his head and walked slowly back to the dugout.

“I think (Javier) was playing peekaboo with the catcher, and saw him set up outside,” Maddux said of his called third-strike pitch. “I tried to go inside, and made a mistake by leaving it down the middle.”

Then came the ninth, when Todd Benzinger started things with a two-out single to center.

Eric Davis beat out an infield single. Davis and pinch-runner Juan Samuel then executed another double steal before Karros walked to load the bases for Hansen.

“(Double steals) didn’t bother me, because they still had to get a hit,” Maddux said.

Hansen took two big swings at strikes before striking out on a 1-and-2 pitch that the Dodgers said was outside.

“That’s hard to take, ending it on a pitch that was obviously outside,” Benzinger said.

Said Manager Tom Lasorda: “Everybody thought it was outside. Guys were coming in screaming about it.”

Hansen, who is known around the league as a young hitter who will swing at nearly anything, shook his head.

“It think it was low and away but . . . that’s the way it goes,” he said. “Sometimes you get them, sometimes you don’t.”

Combined with Sheffield’s hit, these foiled comebacks resulted in the Dodgers’ second loss in six games on this 22-game home stand.

The only thing that surprised Sheffield more than driving in a run with his first pinch-hit appearance of the season was that he was allowed to swing the bat at all.

First base was open after Teufel started the inning with a double and moved to third on Dann Bilardello’s bunt. And on deck was Tony Fernandez.

Sheffield leads the league with 55 runs batted in. In his first season against the Dodgers, he is batting .391 with two homers and 12 RBIs in seven games.

But then, Fernandez had tripled and scored the Padres’ other run in the first inning against loser Martinez (4-5), and had three hits in six at-bats the previous night.

“After what he had done to us this week, we weren’t going to walk anybody to pitch to Fernandez,” Lasorda said.

The Dodgers had tied the score in the sixth inning on three consecutive two-out singles, the last one by Scioscia.