Dodger Lead Is Trashed by the Mets’ Murray, 5-2

Forty-five minutes after the end of another numbing loss, Tom Lasorda was still in his office, still angry.

He was handed a stack of statistics charting the New York Mets’ 5-2 victory over the Dodgers on Tuesday night. He stuffed them in a trash can.

He spotted a stack of pregame note sheets, describing how the Dodgers were attempting to win a second consecutive game. He shoved them down on top of the statistics.

“I can’t believe it,” Lasorda said. “I just can’t believe it.”

This is what happens when nothing you try seems to work, which happened again Tuesday to a manager who can’t remember ever spending so much time with his face in his hands.

This time Lasorda watched three relievers lose a 2-1 lead in the eighth inning, with the go-ahead runs coming on a two-run, check-swing double over third base by former Dodger Eddie Murray.

“Pathetic,” Lasorda said. “A crime.”

It was bad enough that it was Murray, who had had two hits in 23 at-bats against his former team.

Worse yet, the switch-hitting Murray did it against right-hander Roger McDowell, who had replaced left-hander John Candelaria moments before.

Murray fell out of favor with the Dodgers last year, you might remember, because he batted .217 against left-handers.

When he came to the plate during the eighth inning, he was batting .246 against left-handers and .257 against right-handers.

But Lasorda said that he thought Candelaria, who had pitched 1 2/3 innings Monday night and seen both Mets he faced reach base Tuesday night, had reached the limits of his endurance.

“Everybody knows you can’t push Candy too far,” Lasorda said, referring to the fact that Candelaria has pitched more than one inning only twice this season.

So he brought in McDowell, whose sinker Murray sent slightly beyond third base into left field.

“Hey, the guy made a great pitch on him,” Lasorda said. “How many times do you see a check swing go there? You tell me, how many times? He made a great pitch.”

Said Murray: “I was prepared to go up there right-handed, but it didn’t make any difference to me. The manager makes those moves. Go ask him.”

As if to rub it in, Murray made a leaping catch of Dave Hansen’s line drive over first base with two out in the ninth to ensure that the Dodgers still have not won consecutive road games since June 1.

“We do not deserve that,” Lasorda said. “We do not deserve that.”

His anger had nothing to do with the true bright spot for the Mets, five strong innings by Bret Saberhagen in his first start since May 15. Saberhagen gave up one run and five hits.

Lasorda was angry because, before watching his team blow a lead after seven innings for only the third time in 35 games this season, he also witnessed:

--Tom Candiotti give up no hits for four innings, one hit for six innings, then leave the game during the seventh because of a cracked fingernail. For a knuckleball pitcher, that is like a cracked finger.

--Jose Offerman ordered back to third base after scoring what appeared to be the Dodgers’ second run during the fifth inning on a double by Brett Butler.

Offerman was sent back by home plate umpire Charlie Reliford, who ruled that a fan touched the ball.

“How could a ball bounce like that if a fan touched it!” Lasorda said. “Was that fan’s hand made of metal? Replays showed that the ball appeared to hit a railing.

--Offerman commit his league-leading 22nd error during the eighth inning, throwing away the ball after making a great play on a grounder by Dick Schofield.

Schofield ended up on second base and moved to third on a bunt. One out later, Dave Magadan stepped in against Candelaria, who had held Magadan hitless in four career at-bats.

After falling behind 1-and-2, Magadan hit a 3-and-2 fastball up the middle for a single, tying the score.

After Candelaria walked Howard Johnson, McDowell came into the game and threw a wild pitch, moving the runners to second and third. The Dodgers have thrown six wild pitches in three games and at least one wild pitch in each of the six games since the All-Star break.

This set the stage for Murray, who said, “The ball did everything I wanted it to do, it went just the way I planned it.”

Fortunately for the Dodgers, they didn’t hear him laugh.