Scioscia, Dodgers Have <i> That</i> Kind of Day in 4-1 Loss : Baseball: Their mental, physical errors help Cardinals beat Hershiser. Longest home stand ends today.

Mike Scioscia says he was concentrating, that his head was mentally in Saturday’s game and that he wasn’t distracted during his team’s 4-1 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals.

But when was the last time any one in the crowd of 34,216 at Dodger Stadium saw Scioscia start to walk off the field with only two out, make a base-running blunder or throw a ball away in a rundown?

“I’m embarrassed with the way I played today,” Scioscia said. “Today it’s me, another time it’s somebody else.

“You expect offense to go through a slump during the season and your pitching to be erratic from time to time, but you need your defense to be consistent. Our pitching staff has been anything but erratic, but we haven’t given it any support. Orel (Hershiser) pitched well today, like he has all season. There is no excuse for the way I played and the sort of things that happened today.”

The sort of things that happened Saturday have been happening all season and have helped keep the Dodgers alone in last place for the last 22 days.

“I don’t ever remember being in last place,” said Hershiser (7-7). “Fifth place, maybe fourth place, but not like this. The problem is we don’t win for long, and when we lose, we lose for a long time.

“We buried ourselves when we went 1-10 on that road trip, and we can’t turn ourselves around playing .500 ball. We have to be a hot club to climb out.”

Dodger starters have given up three earned runs or fewer and pitched into the seventh inning in 10 of the last 13 games. They have a combined earned-run average of 3.33, third in the NL. But the Dodgers rank eighth in batting and last in fielding.

The Cardinals gave starter Mark Clark (2-3) a four-run lead after the second inning, and that was more than he needed. Lee Smith followed Cris Carpenter in relief and pitched the ninth inning to earn his league-leading 23rd save.

It was a day that included a light rain.

“Somebody called me for tickets and asked me if we were still going to play since it was raining,” Cardinal Manager Joe Torre said. “I said it rains here, but it doesn’t get wet on the ground.”

For the Dodgers, it was the 21st game of an unprecedented 22-game home stand during which they are 11-10.

Brett Butler did not play for the first time this season because of a sore upper back that he aggravated in Friday night’s game. Tom Goodwin, called up from Albuquerque, made his first start this season, was hitless in three at-bats and was thrown out on a steal attempt.

“The guys have bumps and bruises, and the three days off will do us good,” said Mike Sharperson, who is the only Dodger player who will not have the All-Star break off. Sharperson, who has a groin injury, said it is about 75% healed. He grounded into a double play in a pinch-hit appearance Saturday.

The Cardinals scored in the first inning when Ozzie Smith’s single to center field drove in Milt Thompson. In the second inning, Tom Pagnozzi hit a two-run double, scoring Todd Zeile and Brian Jordan, then took third base on Scioscia’s passed ball.

One out later, Clark missed a squeeze bunt, but with Pagnozzi trapped between third base and home, Scioscia threw the ball over third baseman Dave Hansen and into left field. Pagnozzi scored.

Clark struck out, and Scioscia started to walk off the field, but there were only two out.

“Somehow it registered that we had Pagnozzi, and in my mind there were two outs,” Scioscia said. “There are no excuses. It was a bonehead play.”

Ozzie Smith also had a rare day, making two errors to give him six this season, four of them in Dodger Stadium.

The costly one was when he bobbled a routine grounder by Lenny Harris that led to an unearned run for the Dodgers in the fifth inning. Scioscia followed Harris with an even rarer occurrence, beating out an infield single and executing a double steal with Harris. It was the sixth successful double steal by the Dodgers during the home stand.

Jose Offerman then hit a grounder to Smith, who was playing in, and Scioscia was caught in a rundown between second and third, Harris scoring.

Scioscia, who is in the last year of his contract with the Dodgers, singled again in the seventh inning but was stranded on third base.

“Nothing I could have done in the game could make up for the way I played today,” Scioscia said, “unless we could have come back and won.”

* OFF THE HOOK

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