Dodgers Are Merely Pretenders : Baseball: After 6-1 loss to Astros, they are 17 games behind Giants with 57 to play.

It’s safe to say that a race for third place in the National League West isn’t exactly what the Dodgers and Houston Astros had in mind. Yet that’s what this season has become for both clubs.

The Astros inched a half-game above the Dodgers and into third place Tuesday night with a 6-1 victory at the Astrodome, but that wasn’t unexpected. The Dodgers have lost 14 of their last 15 games against the Astros and 11 in a row at the Astrodome.

Besides their bats, the Dodgers were missing the trodden patches of sod they put in their dugout to psyche themselves into thinking they are not playing on turf. Since they trail the San Francisco Giants by 17 games with 57 remaining, perhaps it’s time for the Dodgers to quit pretending entirely.

Their pitching staff may rank third in the National League in earned-run average, but that doesn’t really matter when they don’t have a starter who is even approaching 15 victories. They don’t have a left-handed starter and need a left-handed closer.

For as promising as Kevin Gross always seems to be, he lost his third consecutive game Tuesday night, falling to 7-10 and raising his ERA to 4.31. Until the sixth inning, Gross had given up one run and three hits. But with two outs in the sixth, the Astros had five consecutive hits, including the second of three doubles by Luis Gonzalez and a towering two-run homer by Eddie Taubensee. Gross left the game at the end of the inning with the Dodgers trailing, 4-0.

“Practically all of (Houston’s) runs came with two outs,” Manager Tom Lasorda said. “Up until then, Kevin pitched a good game.”

The Dodger offense, which continues to be inconsistent, was virtually nonexistent against Astro starter Mark Portugal (10-4). He held the Dodgers to three hits until the seventh inning, when pinch-hitter Lenny Harris singled, moved to third on a double by Brett Butler and scored on a sacrifice fly by Jose Offerman. With two outs, Xavier Hernandez relieved Portugal and held the Dodgers to one hit the rest of the way to earn his sixth save.

“I think (the players) are all busting their butts, to use that expression, but it’s a matter of execution, that’s all,” Lasorda said. “They all want to do it, we’re just not doing the job.”

Other than Mike Piazza, who was hitless Tuesday but leads the team with 21 home runs, the Dodgers do not have a dominating force in the lineup. Lasorda had thought that he would have at least five players in the lineup with power. But Darryl Strawberry has been sidelined most of the season, Eric Karros has 11 home runs, Eric Davis and Tim Wallach each have 10 and Cory Snyder has only six.

“I think that there are a couple of players who are tired,” Lasorda said. “I think Corndog (Snyder) is, and Eric Karros definitely is.”

With Strawberry sidelined, the Dodgers do not have a left-handed power hitter in their lineup. Although lefty Dave Hansen excels as a pinch-hitter, he and lefty Lenny Harris lost their chance to play regularly after last season, when the Dodgers signed Jody Reed and Wallach.

Butler has remained consistent as the leadoff batter, hitting above .300 most of the season. And Jose Offerman, batting second, is having a good season at the plate, batting .276 with 43 runs batted in. But in the field, although he is playing better, he continues to be a question mark and a source of frustration for the players because of his sometimes lackadaisical play and lack of instincts. More frustrating to the players is the organization’s unwillingness to recognize Offerman’s shortcomings.

When Reed got upset with Offerman last Saturday at Chicago, it was because he cut a ball off rather than letting it go through, but the frustration transcended the play. Reed and Offerman had to be separated in the dugout, but one player said there were “about 10 guys who wanted to be Reed at that moment.”

“Each guy has to worry about himself,” Butler said. “I can’t expect Eric Karros to be a Brett Butler or an Eric Davis to be a Brett Butler, all I can do is expect the best out of everybody. If somebody doesn’t get to a ball or something like that, I can’t question, ‘Is that their best effort?’ I think there are times it is obvious that it isn’t, or you feel that way, and then things are being said, and that’s what has happened.”

Lasorda, asked after the game if he wished he had better luck playing in Houston, said he wished he had better luck anywhere.