Blowers, Batting .161, Takes a Seat

Manager Tom Lasorda told Mike Blowers that he has not lost confidence in him, but replaced the third baseman for at least a night with Dave Hansen.

“I’m not happy about it . . . but maybe this is the best thing,” Blowers said.

Blowers has hit safely in five of the last six games but is batting only .161 in 62 at-bats.

Lasorda said Blowers’ benching had nothing to do with four-time Cy Young winner Greg Maddux’s pitching for Atlanta.

“We’ve just got to do something different and get him on the right track, that’s all,” Lasorda said.

Blowers, who batted .257 last season with 23 homers and 96 runs batted in for the Seattle Mariners, said this was hardly the impression he wanted to make on his new teammates.

“Nobody here wants to get out of this more than me,” he said. “These guys know I can play, but it’s frustrating waiting to show them.”

*

Lasorda shuffled the rest of the lineup too, leaving only the middle of the batting order intact--Mike Piazza, Eric Karros and Raul Mondesi. Yet, the one man who perhaps could have made a difference, outfielder Milt Thompson, did not start. He struck out as a pinch-hitter in the eighth. Thompson has a .338 batting average against Maddux, the highest of any active National League player with at least 15 at-bats.

*

Ramon Martinez, who has a torn right groin muscle, pitched on the side and expects to pitch off the mound within a week. He will have a minor league rehabilitative assignment before he returns to the Dodgers, probably in mid-May. . . . Infielder Juan Castro was so excited Sunday about being called up to the big leagues, he forgot to telephone his parents. “I called up my wife but I still haven’t called my mom and dad,” he said. “Everything happened so fast.” . . . The Dodgers are 1-10 in games in which they make an error, 7-2 in error-free games.