Dodgers Have to Hand It to Mets : Baseball: Sloppy defense leads to a seven-run inning. Murray hits two homers in 10-5 New York victory.

With his team’s morale low after the three-game sweep by the Philadelphia Phillies, Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda canceled batting practice for Thursday and told the players they didn’t have to be in uniform until 5:30 p.m.

Then, when they got to the clubhouse, he yelled at them behind closed doors.

The yelling, though, wasn’t as bad as it has been in the past. Players have been known to count the number of times Lasorda uses a certain curse word in his fury, and the record is in excess of 200. This time, the word was uttered a mere 54 times. But as Lasorda said before the meeting, until the Phillies swept the Dodgers, his team wasn’t playing badly.

So the players took care of that. The Dodgers committed four errors--from the most unlikely four players on the team--and Eddie Murray hit two home runs to knock in another five runs in the New York Mets’ 10-5 victory before an unhappy crowd of 32,348 at Dodger Stadium. Three of the errors came in the second inning, which, along with a three-run homer by Murray, helped the Mets to a 7-0 lead and gave the Dodgers visions of last year. Only one of the seven runs was earned.

The Mets’ other three runs came in the ninth inning off reliever Todd Worrell, who, after pitching a perfect eighth inning in relief of Kevin Gross (7-8), gave up three hits, including a two-run homer by Murray.

Anthony Young pitched two innings in relief of winner Bret Saberhagen (6-7) for his first save of the season. It was the Dodgers’ fourth consecutive loss and dropped them 15 games behind the San Francisco Giants and into fourth place.

And it started with an embarrassing second inning. After Bobby Bonilla led off with a walk and scored on a double by Jeff Kent, the Dodger infield fell apart.

Mike Piazza bobbled a bunt by Todd Hundley before making a late throw to first, then forgot about covering home while Kent cruised in from second. Hundley then stole second, with Piazza’s throw high. Tim Bogar followed with a routine grounder to Cory Snyder, whose throw was wide and high to Eric Karros.

Saberhagen bunted to Gross, whose throw to Jody Reed at first was wide, but Reed’s lunge saved it. Joe Orsulak hit a two-run single, then moved to second when Reed bobbled a routine grounder by Chico Walker.

Murray then hit Gross’ 1-1 pitch into the left-field pavilion to put the Mets ahead, 7-0. The Dodgers came back in the bottom of that inning and scored three runs, with Piazza and Eric Davis hitting back-to-back singles and Henry Rodriguez, who started in right field, hitting a three-run homer. But Saberhagen held the Dodgers to four more hits until the seventh inning, when Brett Butler, Jose Offerman and Snyder had consecutive two-out singles, scoring two runs to cut the lead to 7-5.

Gross left after seven innings with a pitching line that also looked like a throwback from last season: seven runs, one earned, and seven hits with one walk.

Lasorda said before the game that being a manager for 17 seasons, he has seen his teams go through every stage. So nothing is really new to Lasorda, who mentioned that he doesn’t see why the media is writing his team off for the season.

“Heck, we won three out of four from the Expos before the Phillies,” Lasorda said. “(Atlanta Brave Manager) Bobby Cox told me in the All-Star break that his team was going to catch the Giants. And I said, ‘Good, because we will be ahead of you.’ ”

Lasorda and his coaches held their own strategy meeting before the clubhouse meeting Thursday. Pitching coach Ron Perranoski, a former ace reliever for the Dodgers, mentioned that a friend had mailed him a 1962 issue of Life magazine with Don Drysdale on the cover. “In an article inside, it said that only a catastrophe could cause the Dodgers not to win the pennant. After that article, we were four games in front of the Giants with seven to play, and the Giants went on and beat us in the playoffs.”

With Lasorda, there’s always hope.

* NATIONAL LEAGUE

San Francisco’s John Burkett holds Philadelphia to five hits and becomes the NL’s first 14-game winner. C6

* AMERICAN LEAGUE

Toronto’s John Olerud homers in the ninth inning to give the Blue Jays a victory and lift his average back to .400. C7

* BASEBALL REPORT

Rookie Raul Mondesi could be the Dodgers’ center fielder of the future. Where does that leave Brett Butler? C7