Dodgers, Cubs Do the Splits

The Dodgers weren’t quite sure how to react Tuesday afternoon. They had won a game, looking great. Then they lost one, looking awful.

“It’s like you’re emotionless,” said third baseman Mike Blowers, who had never played in a doubleheader in the major leagues. “All you know is that it’s a long, long day.”

The Dodgers split their first doubleheader in two years against the Chicago Cubs, winning the first game, 9-6, before losing the second, 7-4, before 23,362 at Wrigley Field.

The pitching performances provided the day’s irony.

The pitchers who had started Monday’s rainout, Dodger Ramon Martinez and Cub Mike Campbell, each won, and had virtually identical pitching lines.

Martinez (5-1) yielded three hits and two runs--one earned--in five innings in Game 1. Campbell (2-0) gave up three hits and two runs in five innings in Game 2.

The guys pitching on normal rest, Ismael Valdes and Amaury Telemaco, each lost, and had virtually identical pitching lines.

Valdes, (7-5), in a performance that might have hurt his chances of making the All-Star team, gave up nine hits and seven runs--six earned--in 5 2/3 innings. And Telemaco (3-3) yielded nine hits and six runs in 5 2/3 innings.

Strangest of all, though, was Campbell’s performance. He gave up five hits--two of them homers--and five runs to the first seven batters Monday night in a game that didn’t count. But Tuesday, in the game that did count, his only real mistake was a two-run homer to Tom Prince.

“You don’t get a mulligan in baseball too often,” Campbell said. “I got one today.”

The Dodger pitching staff, which leads the league with a 3.05 ERA, could have used one as well. Dodger pitchers were hammered for 19 hits and 15 runs, the most they had given up in consecutive games since April 4-5, the last time they were in Chicago.

Even so, the first game also happened to be the first this season that they won while yielding at least five runs. They had been 0-17 in those games.

It was all pretty crazy.

Who can explain all-star catcher Mike Piazza--bidding to become the first player in baseball history to catch 100 games and produce 200 hits--going 0 for 5?

Or the Cub catchers striking out five times and failing to hit the ball out of the infield in eight at-bats?

Or Dodger backup catcher Prince hitting a two-run homer in his first at-bat?

Who can explain Cub rookie first baseman Brant Brown, who started the day without an extra-base hit to his name, hitting three home runs in four at-bats, one as a pinch-hitter? He hit as many homers in the doubleheader as Cub all-star Mark Grace has hit all season in 234 at-bats.

“It was Brant Brown Day,” said Dodger first baseman Eric Karros.

Who can explain Dodger reliever Chan Ho Park giving up four runs in 1 1/3 innings in the first game, as many as he had all season in relief?

Who would have imagined that the Dodgers could score nine runs in Game 1 when the middle of the lineup--Piazza, Karros and Raul Mondesi--failed to score or drive in a run?

Then again, who would have imagined that leadoff batter Delino DeShields and No. 2 batter Roger Cedeno would combine for six hits, two homers and seven RBIs in that game? Cedeno went four for five with a homer and a career-high four RBIs, and DeShields went two for five with a three-run homer.

It was the first time this season that they had RBIs in the same game.

Then, just to maintain the essence of this bizarre day, DeShields and Cedeno went hitless in seven at-bats in Game 2.

Perhaps the only thing stranger than the baseball was the weather. Heavy rain was predicted, but not a drop fell.

“My opinion of Wrigley isn’t real good,” Blowers said. “The first day I’m here [in April] it’s snowing. The next day it’s sleeting. Then it rains. Now, it’s a good day, and everyone keeps waiting for it to rain.”

The most dramatic moments of the day occurred in Game 1. The Dodgers had a 9-2 lead in the eighth inning, but the Cubs scored three runs on Sammy Sosa’s 23rd home run, off Park. Then in the ninth, Brown hit his pinch-homer.

The next thing Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda knew, the Cubs were trailing, 9-6, with two runners on and Sosa at the plate again.

Closer Todd Worrell, who had not figured on pitching in that game, struck out Sosa on four pitches for his league-leading 21st save.

DeShields said, “When Sammy hit that homer, I said, ‘Oh-oh, here we go.’ ”