Dodgers’ Defeat No Glove Affair

Orel Hershiser ended his homecoming night in the trainers room, ice on his arm, face melted into a smile.

Poor fielding wiped it off.

Mike Fetters ended his debutante night in the trainers room, ice on his toe, eyes still full of late-inning fire.

Poor fielding snuffed it.

Dave Hansen ended his opening night on the bench, heart racing, hands clapping.

Poor fielding silenced them.

This is what the Dodgers’ 6-5 loss to the Montreal Expos on Wednesday was about.

It wasn’t about blowing a one-run lead in the ninth. It wasn’t about blowing a big hit by Hansen, or big inning by Fetters, or a big start in a usually unfriendly place.

It was about killing things.

That’s what poor fielding does.

It kills things.

It kills moods. It kills momentum. It kills hope.

Sometimes, it kills seasons even before seasons begin.

Last year, it helped kill an entire summer.

The Dodgers were tied for 12th in the National League in fielding and committed more errors than all but three other teams.

How did they respond this winter?

Only by moving their shortstop to second base, where he had played all of 13 games in his 662-game career.

Then where did they send Mark Grudzielanek for special training?

To Bucky Dent’s baseball school.

Not to put too fine a point on the situation, but, um, wasn’t Bucky Dent a shortstop?

It was Grudzielanek’s error that set up Rondell White’s game-winning single Wednesday, when he fouled up his footwork and flopped a double-play grounder out of his glove.

“I lost this game,” he said. “I have to get better.”

His mistake wasn’t the only fielding difficulty, merely the last one.

The Expos’ first run reached base when Peter Bergeron’s leadoff grounder bounced off lunging Eric Karros’ glove for a single.

The Dodgers were lucky the Expos didn’t score again in that first inning when third baseman Adrian Beltre blew a rundown play after Vladimir Guerrero was caught hopping between first and second base on a suddenly sprained ankle.

Later in the game, Beltre, who nearly hit for the cycle, nonetheless dropped a grounder for an official error.

“We have to learn from our mistakes,” Manager Davey Johnson said.

Something we’ve heard before.

The Expos’ scored two runs in the fifth inning, set up when Bergeron’s bunt went unplayed between Hershiser and Karros.

Again, they were lucky the Expos didn’t score again that inning after Jose Vizcaino failed to throw to second base to catch Lee Stevens jogging in after an RBI single.

“It’s the toughest part of baseball,” Hansen said.

Something we’ve heard a million times.

And all of this before the ninth.

When reliever Jeff Shaw failed to grab Bergeron’s sacrifice bunt.

When Grudzielanek blew Jose Vidro’s double-play grounder.

When White hit a ball that not even nine Gold Gloves could have prevented from scoring two runs.

“Grud has been good there, but he just had trouble throwing the ball,” Johnson said.

About the bunt, he was more direct.

“Shaw’s got to field that ball,” he said.

Let’s be even more direct.

This Dodgers cannot win like this.

The Dodgers will not be worth watching like this.

Some teams, they make a few errors in an early game and blow a one-run lead in the ninth with one of the league’s best closers on the mound, you shrug.

After last season, the Dodgers have lost the privilege of that shrug.

A Yankee fan watches this game and says, “Oh, well.”

A Dodger fan watches this game and says, “Oh no.”

Most worrisome is that the man who worried everyone the most with his fielding--Kevin Elster--was nowhere near the accident site.

The Dodgers endured a fielding nightmare with their best fielders.

And a team desperate for a positive spin ruined it.

There was the story of Hansen, putting Ugueth Urbina’s fastball off the right-field speakers for a three-run, go-ahead homer in the eighth.

There was the story of Fetters, in his first vital appearance, dancing off the mound after striking out Geoff Blum with the tying run on third in the eighth.

Then there was the story of Hershiser, making the night’s most important statement in the fifth.

With runners on first and second and one out, he hit Guerrero on the shoulder, causing angry Expo Manager Felipe Alou to curse Hershiser from the dugout.

Hershiser shrugged and said, “Of course I wasn’t trying to hit him. I was just trying to back him off the plate. The guy was hitting, what, .700?”

Actually, before the game, it was .714.

But that doesn’t matter. What matters is that a Dodger pitcher has finally thrown a purpose pitch far enough inside that somebody on the other team has gotten angry about it.

The Dodgers haven’t had a bulldog like that around in, what, five years?

Now all they need is somebody who can go fetch.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at his e-mail address: bill.plaschke@latimes.com.