It’s No Joke as Dodgers Let Phillies End Nine-Game Skid : Baseball: Hershiser lasts only four innings, drops to 1-5 in his last seven starts as L.A. commits four errors during 11-3 loss.

Orel Hershiser surveyed the wreckage of the Dodgers’ latest failure Friday, an 11-3 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies, and made an insightful pronouncement.

“The last three or four innings, this was not a baseball game,” he said.

Indeed, it was a game of hot potato. The Dodgers dropped a fly ball and missed a grounder in a span of three batters en route to a three-error sixth inning and four-error evening.

It was also a game of balloon toss. Three Dodger pitchers gave up 13 hits, including two home runs in a span of three batters and a lead-off walk to a pitcher.

No, in the end, it was not a baseball game. It was, in the words of Manager Tom Lasorda, “a shame.”

“We looked terrible, we really looked terrible,” Lasorda said. “I’m really embarrassed by the way we played tonight.”

Hershiser, the starting pitcher, lasted only four innings.

The Dodgers had two two-run leads, but neither lasted more than one inning.

Their second-half euphoria lasted one game.

“Tonight we exposed the same mistakes that put us in the position we were in during the first half (of the season),” Hershiser said. “That was an embarrassing game for a big-league team to play.”

This is an embarrassing series for both teams.

The Phillies ended a nine-game losing streak. The Dodgers saw a two-game winning streak end and have won at least three consecutive games only three times this season.

The Phillies have been alone in last place in the East Division for 22 days. The Dodgers have been in the West Division basement for 33 days.

“We will not finish last, I promise you that,” Eric Davis said before the game.

Six innings later he dropped a fly ball in left field that was not even the worst of the three errors during an inning that featured three Phillie runs on no hits.

How bad was the sixth inning, during which a 5-3 Phillie lead became 8-3?

From that moment forward, few on this team will even remember that Juan Samuel and Jose Offerman once collided while chasing a fly ball on a Saturday morning in Cincinnati.

“Seemed like we were out there forever,” Eric Karros said.

Hershiser, who is 1-5 in his last seven starts after giving up 56 hits in 44 innings, was fortunate enough to miss the collapse thanks to an early exit.

In his four innings, he had gave up five runs--four earned--and nine hits. The earned runs came on pitches that did not seem as sharp as the ones he threw earlier in the season.

The unearned runs resulted from Offerman’s high throw on a grounder by Mariano Duncan to start the fifth. It was Offerman’s league-worst 21st error and fourth in seven games.

“Mechanically, I felt good, velocity-wise I felt good,” Hershiser said.

With both early leads wiped out, reliever Steve Wilson took over in the sixth and things quickly got even worse.

He started it by giving Curt Schilling, the Phillie starter, his first major league walk. This was after Schilling fouled off eight pitches.

“That sure didn’t help,” Lasorda said.

One out later, Duncan hit a potential double-play grounder to Lenny Harris, but it bounced past him into center field. It was Harris’ 14th error, his fifth in his last 10 games.

The error was made worse when Brett Butler’s throw to third baseman Mike Sharperson was wide, Schilling sliding in safely.

After an intentional walk to David Hollins loaded the bases, John Kruk hit a deep fly ball to Davis. He ran back, camped under it, and dropped it, two runs scoring.

“I overran it--speed can get you in trouble sometimes,” said Davis, who also went hitless and has one hit in his last 18 at-bats. “The most disappointing thing tonight wasn’t that we lost. It was how we lost.”

One out and another intentional walk later, the final run of the inning scored when Karros threw wildly to Wilson, who was covering first base for what he hoped would be the third out.

“Tonight it was nip and tuck,” Hershiser said, “then it exploded in our face.”

Like a trick cigar, which would fit nicely in a season that resembles a practical joke.