Ninth Is No Symphony

No one has, or is likely in the near future, to mention Rick Reed or Brian Bohanon for the Cy Young Award.

But, as far as the Dodgers are concerned, either one of them might as well be Cy Young.

One night after Bohanon, with a little help from his friends in the New York Met bullpen, shut down the Dodgers, Reed, with ninth-inning help from John Franco, did the same, beating the Dodgers, 3-1, Thursday night in front of a disappointed sellout crowd of 53,655 at Dodger Stadium.

The loss cost the Dodgers a chance to gain ground on the San Francisco Giants, who also lost Thursday but remain atop the National League West by four games over the Dodgers.

So what happened to the Dodgers of July, a team that had become the scourge of National League pitchers? The Dodgers won 14 of their first 19 games in the month, hit over .300 and hit 28 home runs going into Thursday night, a series of injuries doing little to slow the Dodgers’ offensive surge.

But over the last two nights, they have collected a total of two runs and eight hits with a run and four hits each night.

Reed (8-4) shut out the Dodgers for eight innings, permitting them only three hits on 92 pitches and was the benefactor in the ninth when New York pushed all its runs across.

“That’s not [just] a game,” Met Manager Bobby Valentine said. “That’s what Rick Reed has been all season. He’s consistently in the strike zone with movement. He’s a good little pitcher.”

With Dodger reliever Mark Guthrie (1-3) on in relief of starter Pedro Astacio in the ninth, Met outfielder Carl Everett brought the first run home with a sacrifice fly to left.

Second baseman Carlos Baerga knocked in the second run on a single to right. Catcher Todd Hundley, going where few baserunners dare to go, into the line of fire of a Raul Mondesi throw from right, survived to brag about it.

But just barely.

Mondesi’s throw arrived on one bounce just as Hundley was arriving. Catcher Tom Prince, playing for the injured Mike Piazza, tried to block the plate while grabbing the throw, which came a few feet up the line. He couldn’t hang on and Hundley slid home safely.

Pinch-hitter Luis Lopez knocked in the final run with a single to center.

With Franco on the mound in the ninth in search of his 27th save, Dodger second baseman Wilton Guerrero gave the crowd false hope by hitting his third home run of the year to left field.

Up came Mondesi, who had earlier legged out an infield single to extend his hitting streak to 13 games.

Mondesi hit a long fly to left that made it into the seats, but it was foul by several feet. Franco then got Mondesi on a groundout, Eric Karros on a fly to right and Todd Zeile on a ground ball to waste a fine performance by Astacio.

After suffering through a miserable stretch, after getting into a very public, very ugly confrontation with Manager Bill Russell, after pitching himself into a very precarious spot in the rotation, Astacio has regained both his touch on the mound and the Dodgers’ confidence in him with two strong performances in a row.

In his last start, Astacio beat the Atlanta Braves for the first time after nine losses.

And Thursday, he shut down the Mets for eight innings, yielding six hits and striking out eight to tie his season high. He did not walk a batter after having walked 43 in 123 2/3 innings this season.

“I know I pitched a good game,” Astacio said, “but I want my team to win.”

Astacio was toughest when he had to be. Consecutive singles by Lance Johnson and Bernard Gilkey to lead off the game immediately put him in peril. But he emerged unscathed when John Olerud popped to short, Hundley struck out and Edgardo Alfonzo grounded to short.

“His stuff has always been there,” Russell said. “It hasn’t been lack of effort or lack of velocity.

“He’s getting ahead of hitters now and, as you saw, throwing a lot of curveballs and getting them over. He’s challenging a lot of hitters.”

After eight innings, with Astacio having thrown 114 pitches, Russell removed him for Guthrie, who entered the game with an 6.87 earned-run average for his last 17 appearances.

“I’d rather take [Astacio] out an inning early,” Russell said, “than a inning late.”

As it turned out, Astacio left one inning too early to save the Dodgers.