There’s No Comedy in Errors for DeShields

Dodger second baseman Delino DeShields winced in anguish, shrugged his shoulders and spread his palms in disbelief.

He has no answers. He has no suggestions. He has no idea what’s wrong.

The only thing he knows is that he is playing rotten baseball, and the harder he tries, the worse he fails.

DeShields can’t carry all the blame for the Dodgers’ 3-0 loss to the Florida Marlins at Joe Robbie Stadium on Wednesday night, but he was as much a reason as anyone.

DeShields, wondering what has happened to his game since the All-Star break, again floundered at the plate and in the field. He failed to hit the ball out of the infield against Kevin Brown [9-8, 1.76 earned run average], made another error and shutting his eyes in frustration when he heard the ugly numbers.

Since the All-Star break, DeShields is batting .130 with no extra-base hits, two RBIs and eight errors. He actually has two more errors than hits.

“He’s fighting it. You can see it out there,” Dodger interim Manager Bill Russell said. “He’s a lot better player than he’s shown. We know that. But it’s not happening for him right now.

“This is really bothering him. He’s putting a lot of pressure on himself. And when things are going bad, it just keeps snowballing. It gets to a point where the dog doesn’t even like you, that’s how bad it’s going.”

DeShields, who was counseled by Fred Claire, Dodger executive vice president, before the game, has no explanation. Sure, he’s gone through plenty of slumps. He was even benched in July of last year. But he’s never gone through something like this.

He already has made more errors than in any season since 1992, and his batting average has plummeted to .238, its lowest since June 7.

“It’s not like I’m pressing, or trying to do something I’m not capable of doing,” DeShields said. “It’s just happening, and I can’t tell you why. I would say if anything, my concentration hasn’t been 100% in the field.

“I wanted to do so well, hitting and all of that, but I don’t consider that pressing.

“I don’t need to sulk, or any of that bull. I just need to play.”

DeShields is expected to be rested tonight and replaced by Chad Fonville, who is fighting for his survival on the team with the expected signing today of free-agent third baseman Tim Wallach.

“[DeShields] has proven he can play and play well,” Dodger first baseman Eric Karros said. “The guy’s just struggling. He just has to keep his head up and keep going out there. It’ll turn. It’s got to.”

DeShields was hardly alone in looking foolish against Brown, who yielded only six singles--three by third baseman Mike Busch--in eight innings, preventing the Dodgers from reaching as far as third base until the eighth inning.

DeShields was at the plate with the opportunity of getting the Dodgers back into the game in that eighth, but he lined out to third baseman Terry Pendleton with two runners aboard, ending the Dodgers’ only rally.

Dodger starter Hideo Nomo [10-9] blamed himself for throwing a first-inning curveball to Marlin right fielder Gary Sheffield that he sent into the left-field seats for a 1-0 lead.

Nomo retired the next 17 batters until Sheffield hit an infield chipper with one out in the seventh inning toward DeShields. He rushed toward the ball and, off-balance, threw it past Karros for an error, enabling Sheffield to reach second.

Sheffield then stole third base and Jeff Conine walked. Devon White hit a grounder to shortstop Greg Gagne, who threw home to get Sheffield in a rundown for the second out, but the runners moved to second and third.

Nomo got ahead of Joe Orsulak, 0-and-2, but he Orsulak hit a shot past DeShields for a two-run single and a 3-0 lead.

“In a game like this,” Dodger catcher Mike Piazza said, “you can’t make a mistake like that. When you have a base open and two strikes on the guy, you’ve got to make a tougher pitch.”

Said Russell: “The bottom like is that we didn’t score any runs. We hit one ball hard the entire game. We couldn’t get anything started. I mean, we were just trying to get two hits in a row [which never happened].

“If we had won 10 in a row, he could have beaten us tonight. [Brown] was that good.”

*

* RETURN OF WALLACH?

Dodgers are expected to sign third baseman Tim Wallach today and could send Chad Fonville to Albuquerque. C8