Comedy of Errors for the Dodgers

It was awful from the first play of the game Tuesday, embarrassing by the second inning, and by the fourth, the Dodgers simply wanted to go home, dive into bed, and throw the covers over their heads.

San Diego beat them, 10-1, in a game so ridiculous even the Padres had to cover their faces to suppress their laughter in front of a sellout crowd of 52,436 at Dodger Stadium.

“I was looking for clouds in the sky today,” Dodger interim Manager Bill Russell said, “hoping it would rain.”

It was that bad.

“It was like a nightmare,” Dodger starter Ramon Martinez said. “I don’t know what happened. It was one of those games where you can’t explain what happened.”

The Dodgers committed four errors and misjudged a fly ball. They had a three-base error. A two-base error. Two errors on one play. And a two-base blunder when left fielder Todd Hollandsworth misjudged a routine fly ball.

“The manager didn’t have to do much today but stand there and watch it,” Russell said. “It was just a total breakdown. All I can say is that it was a total team effort from the manager on down.”

It started off so ugly that the Padres had a 2-0 lead without the benefit of a hit, or even a walk, before the Dodgers came to the plate.

The Padres had a 4-1 lead and still were looking for their first single.

The Dodgers had more errors (four) than hits (three) by the fourth inning, when the Padres led, 8-1.

On a day when the Dodgers celebrated reaching 100 million in attendance at Dodger Stadium, they were booed throughout the game. At least fans can exchange their ticket stubs for another free ticket by Sept. 15.

Considering the Dodgers now have one extra-base hit and two runs--one earned--in their last 39 2/3 innings, there was no lure for fans to stick around past the sixth inning. It got so bad that even Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda left early to beat the traffic.

“I told Billy [Russell] to bear down,” Lasorda said, smiling. “These games count on my record. But I’ll be back. And I’ll be back soon, real soon.”

Lasorda tried his best to control his emotions watching the game. Yet he had a distinct advantage over Russell. He could leave.

“There might be a positive [team] meeting [tonight],” Russell said. “We’ve scored two runs in four games now. You’ve got to be concerned about that.

“This is a better team than that.”

It all began when Rickey Henderson led off the game by hitting a bouncer that rolled through the legs of first baseman Eric Karros. Chris Gomez hit a bouncer back to Martinez for the first out. Steve Finley hit another bouncer to Martinez, and he realized he had Henderson hung up between second and third. Martinez threw back toward second, but his throw bounced into center field.

Henderson reached third, and in the meantime, no one could pick the ball up. Second baseman Delino DeShields picked it up, dropped it, and when center fielder Wayne Kirby rushed in to help, DeShields kicked the ball. Hollandsworth picked the ball up and threw home. The throw was in time, but Henderson slid under catcher Mike Piazza, and Finley ran all the way to third, where he scored on Ken Caminiti’s sacrifice fly.

Leading, 6-1, in the fourth, the Padres had runners on first and second with one out when Wally Joyner hit a grounder to Karros. He fielded the ball and looked toward second, but decided to play it safe. He flipped the ball back to Martinez covering first, but Martinez never saw it.

The ball sailed toward the Padre dugout. Worse, nobody bothered to pick it up. By the time Martinez realized he would have to retrieve the ball himself, Joyner was on third and two more runs had crossed the plate for an 8-1 Padre lead.

“It was one of the uglier games you’re going to see anywhere,” Russell said. “When their pitcher [Bob Tewksbury] is one for 41, and he gets a [second-inning] double, that tells you what kind of game it would be.”

Said Karros: “It was one of those games. No offense. No defense. No pitching.

“Just a bad, bad game.”