Braves Leave Dodgers Speechless : Baseball: Hershiser gives up nine earned runs and 10 hits in 4 2/3 innings, his worst ever, as team falls 21 1/2 games out, 10-3.

The surprises keep on coming from a Dodger team that has won four road games in two months while giving up 30 runs in its last 25 innings.

After a 10-3 loss to the Atlanta Braves on Sunday, Orel Hershiser refused to talk.

He did open his mouth. Three times.

The first time he said: “I’ve got nothing to say.”

The second time he said: “I’m not doing this to stand you guys up, I’m just doing it not to talk.”

When pressed for reasons, he finally said: “This game wasn’t worth participating in. It wasn’t even worth being here.”

Then he walked into a closed meeting with Manager Tom Lasorda.

“We’re not the worst team in baseball,” Todd Benzinger said. “But if we keep this up, by the end of the season, you can arguably say that.”

Some say that now.

The Seattle Mariners have a worse record, but how many times have the Mariners endured a three-day span during which they gave up 28 runs and 39 hits?

That is what happened here as the first-place Braves increased their lead over the last-place Dodgers to 21 1/2 games.

And how many times have the Mariners seen a slow opponent with sore knees to drive in four runs on one ground ball?

That is what happened here Sunday, as 43,659 fans at Atlanta Fulton County Stadium cheered for several minutes after a one-minute experience they might never enjoy again.

“I thought I had seen everything,” Eric Karros said. “But we keep inventing new ways to beat ourselves.”

With the Braves leading Hershiser by 2-0, and the bases loaded in the third inning, Sid Bream hit a grounder barely inside first base and down the right-field line.

Two runs scored on the hit, then David Justice scored from first base when Mitch Webster’ throw home sailed far to the left of catcher Carlos Hernandez.

Hershiser, backing up the play, picked up the ball and tried to throw Bream out at second. But his throw sailed into the right-center field gap and Bream scored easily to make it 6-0.

With Tom Glavine giving up five hits in six innings for his major league-leading 17th victory, the Dodgers were never in it.

“There are three basic ways to lose: lack of pitching, lack of hitting and errors,” Karros said. “But we find different combinations within each group.”

As confusing as it looked on the field, it appeared as bad on the bench two innings later, when Hershiser was apparently replaced by pinch-hitter Mike Sharperson with runners on first and third and one out.

But Hershiser protested. And Lasorda apparently realized that every pitcher in his bullpen except Jay Howell had worked at least two innings in the previous two days.

So Hershiser was allowed to bat, and drove in a run with a grounder. But in the bottom of the fifth he gave up four more runs on a walk, four singles and a wild pitch.

This lead to the worst statistical performance of Hershiser’s career: nine earned runs and 10 hits in 4 2/3 innings.

“None of this is easy right now,” Lasorda said.

The Dodgers learned afterward that their best starting pitcher, Tom Candiotti, has been put on the 15-day disabled list because of an inner bruise in his left knee.