The Dodger Bullpen Blows Another One : Baseball: Piazza’s 477-foot grand slam is wasted as the Marlins overcome a 9-3 deficit and win, 11-10.

Manager Tom Lasorda sat at his desk, shaking his head, but still eating. The only answers to reporters’ questions he could muster were anchored in disbelief.

Moments before, chairs had flown in the clubhouse, the players venting frustration over the bullpen losing a game for the second consecutive night--a game that appeared won.

“You score 10 runs and you lose, that’s hard to believe,” Lasorda said.

The Dodgers hit four home runs Monday night at Joe Robbie Stadium, including Mike Piazza’s first career grand slam. But all of that was lost during the seventh inning, when the Florida Marlins, behind by 9-3, scored six runs on seven consecutive hits with two out to tie the score. They went on to win, 11-10, in the bottom of the ninth inning, their team-record fifth consecutive victory.

Starter Tom Candiotti, who got the first two out in the seventh, turned over a 9-4 lead to Darren Dreifort, and had every reason to believe as he headed for the trainer’s room that he would end up the winner. It is unknown whether Candiotti vented his frustration before or after pinch-hitter Jesus Tavarez, a double-A outfielder who has been a Marlin for about two weeks, singled to left field against Roger McDowell (0-3) to drive in the winning run.

What did he break?

“Look around,” said Candiotti, who had not wanted to come out of the game. “I think it’s all been cleaned up.”

It took three relievers in the seventh--Dreifort, Jim Gott and Al Osuna--before Osuna got the final out. The Marlins, who had two hits against Candiotti, got five more, including a run-scoring triple by Chuck Carr that tied the score at 9. The Marlins had three doubles in the inning.

“That’s the best we have ever battled back in the team’s history,” said the Marlins’ Rene Lachemann, who got his 300th victory as a major league manager.

The Dodger bullpen blew a four-run lead in the eighth inning of Sunday’s game to lose to the Atlanta Braves, but that was nothing compared to this collapse.

When McDowell, the fourth Dodger reliever, was in the process of giving up six hits, the only reliever remaining was Todd Worrell, who had blown his third consecutive save chance Sunday. With Gary Wayne back in Los Angeles to be with his wife as she delivers their baby, Lasorda had to save Worrell for extra innings.

Fred Claire, Dodger executive vice president, said after Sunday’s loss that he planned no changes in the bullpen. But now?

“We have to discuss everything, Fred and I talk every day and I talk with the coaches,” Lasorda said.

The Dodgers have 27 hits and 15 runs in their last two games, both losses. Piazza’s grand slam in the second inning against starter Mark Gardner--Piazza’s second home run in two games--went 477 feet and hit the top of a 50-foot tarp in center field, the longest home run at Joe Robbie Stadium. He was four for four, scored three runs, and has driven in eight runs in the last two games. But he wasn’t celebrating after this game.

“Don’t ask me to analyze anything tonight, I’m not in the mood,” said Piazza, who is batting .350 with 12 home runs and a league-leading 54 RBIs.

“What can you say? It’s just not fun, it’s frustrating. I’ve been saying for a couple of days that we are still in first place, but we need to break out of this.

” . . . I’m sure the bullpen would be the first to say they are just not throwing well, but eventually someone is going to step up and pitch the way we need them to pitch.”

In the eighth inning, Raul Mondesi threw out Marlin catcher Benito Santiago, the go-ahead run, at the plate, with Piazza tagging his counterpart in the face. Santiago wasn’t happy, and Piazza said he hoped it didn’t cause bad blood between the two.

“I regret it happened, I was kind of protecting myself,” Piazza said. “Obviously (since he was injured in a collision with the Chicago Cubs’ Glenallen Hill), I am a little sensitive to guys trying to run me over. I tagged him high and it may have looked a little dirty. . . . As I picked the throw I didn’t realize I had so much time.”

And the Dodgers keep sinking lower and lower.