Dodgers Hit Bottom With 4-3 Defeat

One inning after proving again that their gloves are largely decoration, the Dodgers tried to save a game in the ninth inning Sunday with their bare hands.

Well, they thought it couldn’t get any worse.

In a moment that typified a season, Eric Karros spun around while chasing a difficult blooper in shallow right field. He finally lunged at the ball with his bare right hand just before colliding with right fielder Mitch Webster.

The ball fell, and Olympic Stadium shook as 46,620 fans celebrated Bret Barberie’s game-winning double in the Montreal Expos’ 4-3 victory.

One strike from a victory, the Dodgers walked away stripped of all emotion.

“You get to the point where you don’t even get mad anymore,” pitcher Kevin Gross said.

For the second time this season, the Dodgers blew a lead entering the bottom of the ninth inning.

For the first time this season, they have officially become the worst team in the National League. Their 41-57 record made them one game worse than the Philadelphia Phillies.

After being swept in a three-game weekend series, they have won two games at Olympic Stadium in three years.

“Right now it’s like we have to look up to see the plate, we’re so far down,” Brett Butler said.

The Expos, with 20 victories in their last 31 games, are still two games behind the East-leading Pittsburgh Pirates, but suddenly they feel as if the Pirates are chasing them.

“It was ugly. I know it was ugly,” said Barberie, a former USC player. “But if we win this thing (championship), then we’ll look back on that ugly thing as a big break.”

Gee, which ugly thing is Barberie talking about?

--His hit against loser Steve Wilson was preceded by a game-tying double by Delino DeShields off the glove of a diving Karros and down the right-field line.

--The tying run was put on base three batters earlier when Roger McDowell walked leadoff hitter Wil Cordero on four pitches.

--The run that pulled the Expos within 3-2 was scored during the eighth inning after Jose Offerman dropped a grounder, then threw it into the Expos’ dugout.

It was Offerman’s league-worst 23rd error.

Marquis Grissom took second on the play, then scored with two fly balls. “I thought I had a good chance to win this game,” said Gross, who allowed one run in 6 1/3 innings.

Once Gross settled in a front of a clubhouse television set, though, he was overcome by a condition everybody who has watched the Dodgers this season has felt.

“I was sitting here watching it and . . . boy, I couldn’t believe my eyes,” he said.

Neither could Manager Tom Lasorda, who was ejected in the first inning after continuing an argument with umpire Charlie Williams from Saturday night.

Although Lasorda said he could watch Barberie’s hit only on television, he could clearly see one thing.

“That ball has got to be caught,” he said.

While Karros and Webster’s dilemma was obvious, another person who might have had a chance to catch the ball but was not in the picture was Lenny Harris. He might have gotten a late jump on the ball from second base.

Karros, however, took the blame, saying, “I catch that ball nine out of 10 times. I ran after it, I looked up and I wasn’t where the ball was. It was my fault.”

Webster could have only caught the ball if he dived, but said by “the time I was getting ready to dive, Eric was there.”

The Dodgers built a 2-0 lead. After the Expos had closed the gap to 2-1, the Dodgers got another run on Mike Sharperson’s sacrifice fly in the eighth.

And even after Offerman’s error, the Dodgers could have won.

But DeShields hit his bouncer down the line, and four pitches later the game was over.

“I really can’t explain how that was a hit,” DeShields said.

Give the Dodgers a couple of hours, and they can fill him in.