Boss Waves White Flag Over the Blue Dodgers : Baseball: After Mets rain on his parade, 7-5, Claire puts Strawberry on disabled list and talks of future.

After another long, frustrating day in an embarrassing season, with a vital member of his team probably lost for the summer, Fred Claire believed he had no choice Wednesday.

Standing solemnly in the corner of the clubhouse, he delivered a concession speech for 1992.

“I’m not going to tell you it’s not raining when it’s raining,” said the Dodgers’ vice president. “We have to start being realistic about this thing. We have to look at where we are going.”

The Dodgers had lost to the New York Mets, 7-5. And Claire had decided to put Darryl Strawberry back on the 15-day disabled list with a stiff back that has yet to recover from a herniated disk he suffered in May.

Strawberry said this probably means he is out for the season. And without Strawberry, the last-place Dodgers would seem to have little or no chance of making up a 15 1/2-game deficit with 67 remaining.

So much for Peter O’Malley’s $43-million payroll.

“Has this been a fun season? No,” Claire said.

Only three days ago, Claire was telling reporters that he was not prepared to give up on the season.

But with his team having lost 17 of its last 20 road games, such optimism had a hollow ring.

“With Darryl being out, you have to look at where we go from here,” Claire said. “I cannot close my eyes to what is happening. . . . I’ve got a lot of thinking to do on the plane to Montreal.”

Claire will think, for instance, about trading veterans Bob Ojeda and Kevin Gross before the deadline, Aug. 1.

He will think about recalling some young prospects--second baseman Eric Young, catcher Mike Piazza and outfielders Tom Goodwin and Henry Rodriguez--before Sept. 1, the usual date.

Asked if the Dodgers would get younger quicker, Claire said: “Yes, we will. . . . We will look toward the future.”

Asked if he will change his mind about trading important veterans, he said, “The players who are part of our future, they are important to us.”

The Dodgers have 10 potential free agents who may not be part of that future, among them Eric Davis, Roger McDowell, Mike Scioscia and Ojeda.

During the All-Star break, when Claire talked about waiting until August to make moves, he was hoping this Eastern trip would be the start of a turnaround.

But in seven games since, the Dodgers are 2-5, have blown leads in four of those defeats and have committed key errors in all but one of the games.

“We could have won all seven games and be waltzing out of this clubhouse talking about our chances for the rest of the season,” Claire said. “But that didn’t happen. We are at a different point than when we started this trip, and we have to act accordingly.”

Putting Strawberry on the disabled list could be considered the first of those acts. Strawberry said he was going to try to play during the rest of the trip.

And now?

“More than likely . . . I could be gone for the rest of the year,” Strawberry said.

If he is, here is what the Dodgers got from their highest-paid player: 38 games, five home runs, 24 runs batted in.

“What a big void,” Brett Butler said. “But what can we do? We go forward and suck it up.”

Before 39,174 at Shea Stadium Wednesday, the Dodgers took a 1-0 lead against David Cone on Davis’ run-scoring triple in the second inning.

Then they went backward--again.

The Mets scored three runs against Orel Hershiser in the second inning on three hits and an error by Eric Karros with two out and one run in.

Karros booted a potential inning-ending grounder by Howard Johnson, permitting two more runs to score.

The Dodgers came back to tie the score against Cone with two runs in the fifth inning and Hershiser’s RBI single in the sixth.

But Hershiser, who is 1-6 since June 9, gave up three more runs in the bottom of the sixth inning. The go-ahead run scored on Daryl Boston’s sacrifice fly after singles by Dick Schofield and Todd Hundley and Cone’s bunt.

In his last five starts, Hershiser has given up 18 runs and 28 hits in 28 2/3 innings. In the last two games, he has blown three leads and has fallen to 7-9 with a 3.82 earned-run average.

But the problem, according to Hershiser and opposing hitters, is that he is throwing too hard.

“My velocity is getting better each time, and so I am trying to throw more fastballs than I used to throw, and my mechanics aren’t working well with it yet,” Hershiser said. “It’s just something I have to adjust to.”

Dave Magadan of the Mets agreed, saying: “He has better velocity than last year. His control is the only thing that is lacking. I don’t think he’s that far off.”

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