Think Blookie: Dodgers Struggle Again

The smallest crowd to watch a Dodger game at Dodger Stadium in more than two years showed up Wednesday, filling 22,324 seats and prompting an obvious question.

How come there were that many?

In a 6-2 loss to the San Diego Padres, the Dodgers again did little to inspire confidence in themselves, much less anybody else.

--Orel Hershiser took the mound hoping for his seventh victory. Instead, he gave up a career-high 13 hits, most of them 10-hoppers or soft fly balls that landed between fielders.

Afterward he took out his frustration on the English language, calling those hits “blookies.”

--The Dodgers narrowed a four-run deficit to 4-2, put runners on first and second with one out in the seventh inning . . . then didn’t hit the ball out of the infield the rest of the game.

At least this offense will have something in common with Darren Daulton when he arrives with the Philadelphia Phillies today. In June, they both hit eight home runs.

--The bullpen gave up two runs in the eighth inning on five walks, only one intentional.

Of 31 pitches they threw that inning, eight were strikes.

“Sometimes it seem like the plate is pretty small,” relief pitcher Steve Wilson said. “Today was one of those days.”

Wilson started the seventh inning, threw a strike to Kurt Stillwell, then threw 10 consecutive balls before being taken out.

He issued his second walk to Larry Andersen, the only active Padre pitcher who had not batted this season.

John Candelaria relieved Wilson and walked Fred McGriff and Darrin Jackson on nine pitches with the bases loaded.

“That is the first time I’ve ever walked a pitcher,” Wilson said. “And on four pitches! I’ve never had a day like this.”

Neither had Hershiser, who said: “I gave up a lot of blookies. Blookie to left, blookie to right.”

Of the nine hits against Hershiser in the first three innings, only two were hit hard.

But a bloop double by Tony Fernandez that fell out of Eric Davis’ glove after he attempted a diving catch in the first inning led to one run.

A bouncing single over second base by Stillwell in the second inning accounted for another run.

Then a bloop double to right field by Jackson, followed by a bloop single to left by Dan Walters, accounted for two runs in the third.

“String all those hits together and maybe they reach the fence,” said Hershiser (6-6), who has not won in four starts since June 9. “The worst pitch I made, we got an out.”

Times are obviously tough when the only thing the Dodgers can brag about is that they hit their first home run in 115 innings, Mike Sharperson’s drive in the fifth.

That made it 4-2, and it could have gotten closer in the sixth inning, after Eric Karros led off against winner Craig Lefferts (10-5) with a single.

Dave Anderson hit a hard ground ball up the middle, but Fernandez stabbed it behind second base to start a double play.

“That was our one shot,” Manager Tom Lasorda said. “That was the play of the game.”

The Dodgers, 2 1/2 games deep in last place, admit they are running out of shots.

On Monday night, they were 4-1 on this 22-game home stand that they hoped would turn the season around.

But less than 48 hours later, they were 4-3 on the home stand after leaving 14 runners on base Tuesday, then suffering further embarrassment Wednesday.

“We have 15 games left, we need to win nine or 10 of them,” Hershiser said.

Said Anderson: “For us to get back in it now, we need to win, like, eight in a row. And the clubs in front of us are too good for us to wait too long.”

The fans seems to be saying that the Dodgers have already waited too long. At their current pace, based on 77 home dates because of the four dates lost during the riots, the Dodgers would draw 2,786,630.

It would be their lowest full season attendance since 1976, the last season before Lasorda became manager.

“It was different today,” Brett Butler said of the empty seats. “But that is the way it’s going to be until we get this thing right.”