A Not-So Wild Ride

Attention Dodger fans: Save your lungs. Those boos are falling on deaf ears.

An announced Dodger Stadium crowd of 35,270, angry that their Dodgers had fallen behind the Florida Marlins, the worst team in baseball, 8-0, Tuesday afternoon on the way to an 8-6 defeat, angry that the team had failed to pick up a game in the wild-card race, focused their displeasure on left fielder Bobby Bonilla, who made an error on one play and failed to get to another ball that appeared to be uncatchable anyway.

“I don’t know what to do with myself,” said Bonilla in mock horror at the fans’ reaction. “Once I figure out what they were booing about, I’ll change it. I’ve got thick skin. Say what you want and do what you want, but it’s going to take a lot to catch up to the New York fans [he once played for the Mets], and then it would not be enough. . . . It would take a lot to rattle my cage. I’ve been through a lot worse. [The booing] was no big deal.

“I don’t think [the error] cost us the game. We wanted to play well, but it didn’t happen.”

Instead, the Dodgers played as if the Marlins were still the team that won last season’s World Series rather than this year’s club, which has only eight players remaining from that triumph and has won a major league-low 43 games.

Using a starting lineup that included three men other than the pitcher hitting below .200, the Marlins banged out 17 hits, tying their season high. And those 17 hits, racked up against starter Darren Dreifort (6-11) and three relievers, were a season high for the Dodgers as well, in hits allowed. Dreifort gave up five runs on 11 hits in five innings.

Dodger Manager Glenn Hoffman was quick to defend his right-hander, who has three losses and a no-decision in his last four starts.

“We are going to need him,” Hoffman said. “He will bounce back. Darren is a competitor. I believe in him.”

With Florida right fielder Mark Kotsay, a former Cal State Fullerton standout, getting four hits and fellow outfielder Todd Dunwoody getting three, and three RBIs, the Marlins scored a run in the third, three in the fourth, single runs in the fifth and sixth, and two more in the eighth.

The first play by Bonilla that so upset the fans had no effect on the game. Marlin first baseman Derrek Lee hit a fly ball to left in the third inning that fell in front of Bonilla for a single, but Dreifort then struck out Cliff Floyd to end the inning.

“If it could have been caught, it would have been caught,” Bonilla said. “I was playing deep because Lee has got good pop and that one got in there.”

Then in the fourth, with Kevin Orie aboard, catcher Gregg Zaun hit a ball inside the third-base bag and down the line. Bonilla caught up with it after it had caromed off the railing down the line, but the ball squirted through his legs, allowing Orie to score.

Florida went on to score two more runs in the inning on a single by Dunwoody, who also doubled and hit his second home run of the year. That left Dunwoody, who started the game hitting .252, with two shots at hitting for the cycle, but he struck out and grounded to short in those two at-bats.

Dunwoody wasn’t the only Marlin who played beyond what his numbers would indicate. Starting and winning pitcher Jesus Sanchez had a 5-6 record and a 4.26 earned-run average. But he shut out the Dodgers in his 6 1/3 innings, allowing five hits.

After Dodger shortstop Mark Grudzielanek put his team on the scoreboard in the eighth inning with an RBI single, the Dodgers came up with five in the ninth to make it close.

But that had more to do with a Marlin breakdown than a Dodger breakthrough.

With one out in the ninth, Florida reliever Matt Mantei allowed two walks and a single to load the bases, then walked catcher Charles Johnson to force in a run. Enter reliever Antonio Alfonseca, who walked in two more runs and gave up an RBI single to Grudzielanek. Alfonseca surrendered another run on a groundout by Raul Mondesi and intentionally walked Gary Sheffield before getting Eric Karros on a liner to center to end the game.

Another few walks and the Dodgers just might have pulled it out.