Muddle Relief Spoils Day for Gagne

As Gary Sheffield strode out of the batting cage Saturday afternoon, the Dodger left fielder was approached by Tom Lasorda.

The longtime manager, now a Dodger senior vice president, could hardly contain himself.

“Geez, you’re hotter than a Dominican trumpet player,” Lasorda told Sheffield, who was riding a 16-game hitting streak with nine home runs dating back to last season.

Too bad the Dodger relievers were so lethargic.

Jeff Williams couldn’t hold a one-run lead and Alan Mills gave up the go-ahead runs in the Dodgers’ 5-4 loss to the Cincinnati Reds in front of 51,179 at Dodger Stadium. The loss halted a Dodger winning streak at five games.

“Basically, with no off days coming home, my pen’s a little bit tired,” Manager Davey Johnson said.

Mills, who gave up two runs in the seventh inning, took the loss.

“It was those two-out walks,” Mills said, matter-of-factly. “You just can’t walk people. I make no excuses.”

The loss spoiled a decent outing for rookie right-hander Eric Gagne, who was recalled from triple-A Albuquerque before the game.

The lone mistake Gagne made was in the first inning when he grooved a 2-0 fastball to Red catcher Eddie Taubensee, who promptly drilled it 402 feet into the orange seats on the loge level in right field for a two-run homer. It was only the eighth time in Dodger Stadium’s 38-year history that a home run reached the loge level.

Other than that, Gagne was solid, going five innings and giving up the two runs on three hits while striking out five and walking three. He threw 98 pitches, 60 for strikes.

“It was the best thing to go back to triple A to get my thinking together, get positive again and just throw the ball like I can do it,” said Gagne, who was initially supposed to make the Dodgers’ opening day roster but was sent down to the minors after a brutal spring. “I got my pitches together and my act together [in Albuquerque], so now I’m back to stay.

“All I really did today was compete and throw my stuff, not overthrow.”

Johnson agreed.

“He settled down and he really pitched well,” he said. “All of his pitches looked just like they did at the end of last year. I was real pleased with that.

“We’re going to need him.”

It was in the bottom of the fifth, when Gagne was removed for a pinch hitter, that the Dodgers took the lead.

With two out and two on, Sheffield continued his torrid ways by crushing a first-pitch offering from Red starter Denny Neagle.

The three-run blast to left-center was Sheffield’s fourth homer of the season and extended his hitting streak to 11 games this year, 17 overall dating back to last season.

“I’m seeing strikes and I’m swinging at strikes,” said Sheffield, who went one for two with three walks and is batting .444 with 12 runs batted in. “When you swing at strikes, good things happen. I’m not trying to force the issue, I’m just looking for my pitch and when I get it I can’t miss it.”

The Reds quickly tied it in the sixth off Williams when D.T. Cromer singled in Dante Bichette, who had doubled.

They added two more in the seventh when Mills gave up a pair of two-out walks, to Barry Larkin and Ken Griffey Jr., and Taubensee, who tied a career-high with four RBIs, drove them in with a single.

The Dodgers made things interesting in the ninth.

Todd Hollandsworth led off with a double off the right-field wall and moved to third on a Devon White bloop single.

Mark Grudzielanek’s fielder’s choice scored Hollandsworth before Shawn Green grounded out to second and moved White to third.

That brought Sheffield to the plate again.

After fouling off the first two Danny Graves pitches, he worked a walk, but Eric Karros grounded to second for a fielder’s choice to end the game.