Dodgers Err but Reds Lose, 4-3

If the Dodgers knew this could happen, perhaps they would not have waited until now to make six errors in a game.

“What, you mean we haven’t already made six errors in a game?” pitcher Bob Ojeda asked.

As strange as it sounds, the Dodgers played even worse than the worst fielding team in baseball Thursday, committing five throwing errors and one fielding error.

But stranger still, they won, defeating the Cincinnati Reds, 4-3, before 32,514 fans at Riverfront Stadium.

“How the heck do you expect to win a pennant race if you can’t win a game like this?” Red pitcher Jose Rijo said. “We have reached the heights of embarrassivity.”

If that is the case, then the Dodgers are tugging at their ankles.

They won their first road series in more than two months despite having two more errors than hits.

They won despite losing one potential winning run in the ninth inning when Brett Butler was tagged out while trying to score on a pitch that got away from the catcher.

They won despite intentionally walking the Reds’ potential winning run in the bottom of the ninth.

They won only because rookie Henry Rodriguez, who had no home runs and two runs batted in before the game, hit a two-run homer in the second inning and a run-scoring double in the ninth.

They won, then they dressed quickly and attempted to leave town quietly.

“You will never see another game like this in your life, ever,” outfielder Mitch Webster said. “I’ve been playing, what, about 50 years now, and I have never seen something like this.”

The Reds had seen it--and couldn’t believe it.

“If we can’t beat the Dodgers at least two out of three games--without any disrespect--then I don’t think we can beat anybody,” Rijo said.

It was the third time in their Los Angeles tenure that the Dodgers have committed six errors in the game, the first since 1986. The club record is seven errors, set in 1972.

Amazingly, they have won all three six-error games.

“Thank God the dugout was close,” said Eric Karros, the first baseman who spent much of his afternoon chasing errant throws.

With the score tied, 3-3, in the eighth inning, their top relief pitcher, Norm Charlton, was ejected for arguing with third base umpire Tom Hallion. While pitching to Jose Offerman, Charlton was charged with a ball because Hallion ruled that he put his fingers to his mouth on the mound.

Charlton agreed that he broke the rules, but he said Hallion called it only because the Dodger bench goaded him into calling it.

“My back was turned to him, how could he have seen me?” Charlton asked.

After the situation calmed, Scott Ruskin struck out Offerman.

But the Reds could have used Charlton in the ninth, when Karros drew a two-out walk against Dwayne Henry and Rodriguez drove his winning hit against the left-center field wall.

“Don’t get me to start ripping today,” said Lou Piniella, the Reds’ exasperated manager.

Rijo, who gave up two hits in six innings, added: “If I start pointing fingers, I will run out of fingers.”

Jim Gott walked Bip Roberts on four pitches to start the bottom of the ninth. Roberts stole second, where he stood when Steve Wilson was brought in to face left-handed hitting Paul O’Neill with two out.

Wilson was used in that spot only because John Candelaria has a twisted knee. Wilson threw his first pitch to the backstop, moving Roberts to third.

Manager Tom Lasorda ordered Wilson to walk O’Neill and brought in Jay Howell, who retired Darnell Coles on a pop out to end the game with his first save since the last day of last season.

“Yeah, I enjoyed this game,” Lasorda said. “After it was over.”

Pedro Astacio, the rookie pitcher who gave up three unearned runs in six innings, made the first error with a wild pickoff throw in the first. Then Rodriguez made a wild throw from right field.

Jose Offerman started the second inning by making the first of his two errors on a bouncing throw to first base. Eric Young, who also had two errors, booted a grounder in the third.

In the sixth, Offerman made a high throw to Karros. Young’s wild throw to Karros in the seventh completed Lasorda’s torment.