Late Errors by Offerman Aid Reds, 9-6 : Dodgers: Bad throws in the eighth and ninth innings prove costly. The shortstop is booed, coming and going.

Whatever chances the Dodgers had to win Saturday night vanished when Jose Offerman made two errors in the late innings to hand the Cincinnati Reds three runs and a 9-6 victory.

Offerman was booed after his throwing error on a routine grounder in the eighth inning put the winning run on first base, and the Reds scored to move ahead, 7-6. He was booed even more loudly by the waning crowd of 43,806 at Dodger Stadium after another throwing error in the ninth inning turned a 7-6 game into a three-run deficit.

In the ninth, when Offerman came to bat, the boos increased, matching the intensity of last season, when he made 42 errors. He has made 23 this season.

When Offerman grounded into a fielder’s choice, it got worse. And when the Dodgers failed to score and Offerman walked back to the dugout, he and a fan got into a shouting match over the dugout roof. Third base coach Joe Amalfitano broke it up.

In the past, Offerman’s teammates have criticized him only privately, but lately, that has changed. Since a recent game in Chicago during which Offerman and Jody Reed got into a shouting match in the dugout, more is being said publicly about Offerman’s mental lapses and lack of instincts.

But after Saturday night’s game, Jim Gott, who relieved Orel Hershiser during the eighth inning, said he was getting tired of Offerman taking the heat.

“I’m tired of this. He’s busting his butt out there every night and when a mistake is made it is very unfair to lay it on him,” Gott said. “Sure, we get frustrated and maybe some players say things, but the players who do also want Jose to do well. It’s not like they want him off the team. We all know that we have to build his confidence up so that he knows we want him out there. That’s not up to the coaches or the manager, that’s up to me, Jim Gott. I need to let him know that I want him behind me in the ninth inning.”

Although the Dodgers are 16 games behind the San Francisco Giants, the players continue to talk about intensity, about not giving up and playing hard until the end of the season. It seems like no matter which player is talking, they always point to Jody Reed and Tim Wallach as examples of players who don’t quit.

“Those guys are gamers,” pitcher Kevin Gross said. “Players like Jody and Tim and Brett (Butler). Those guys go out there every day and give it all they got. And if players don’t, they are going to let them know. I will speak up, too, and not watch us dwindle away. Last year our whole pitching staff bit our tongues all year and pitched as hard as we could.

“Last year, it was like we just played the year out when we could have played our butts off and got something out of the year. “

But losses such as Saturday night’s continue to frustrate the team. “You don’t know who’s going to show up--a major league team or the Bad News Bears,” said Brett Butler, who went three for four.

The Dodgers were ahead, 3-0, in the third inning, during which Red Manager Davey Johnson was ejected for arguing Hershiser’s bunt single, before the Reds went ahead, 4-3, in the fourth. The Dodgers tied the score at 4 in the fifth inning on a home run by Eric Davis, who went two for five with three runs batted in, and went ahead, 6-4, in the sixth on a two-run homer by Henry Rodriguez.

In the eighth, Hershiser (8-11) gave up a two-run homer to Joe Oliver, then pinch-hitter Jack Daugherty was safe at second base when Offerman fielded Joe Oliver’s grounder and sailed a throw by first baseman Eric Karros.

With the score 6-6, Jim Gott relieved Hershiser and Greg Tubbs grounded out before Jeff Branson lined a single to left to put the Reds ahead, 7-6.

Hershiser left the game after giving up seven runs, six earned. Jerry Spradlin (2-0) pitched two innings for the victory and Rod Dibble pitched the ninth to earn his 16th save.

“It was frustrating for the team because we had the lead two times and didn’t hold it, and frustrating for me because they gave me the lead two times and I couldn’t hold it,” said Hershiser, who went two for three and increased his batting average to .420.

“Nobody feels worse than Offerman does,” Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda said.