It’s Plain to See Where the Dodgers Are Off-Key

No “Master of the House” played by Dodger Stadium organist Nancy Bea Hefley. No Carole King singing the national anthem. No Duke Snider throwing out the ceremonial first pitch. No red-white-and-blue bunting dangling from the suite level. No capacity crowd.

No Orel Hershiser after the first out of the second inning.

The difference between the first and last games of the Dodgers’ opening homestand of the 2000 season was more than day and night.

Hershiser, in his much-heralded return as the Dodgers’ starter for the home opener last Friday, pitched well at times, persevered through others and beat Ken Griffey Jr.’s Cincinnati Reds with an encouraging six-inning, six-hit, one-run outing.

Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium, the master of the house was not even master of the strike zone. He could get only four Houston Astros out, giving up seven earned runs on four hits, walking two and hitting four with pitches.

Yes, you read right. Hershiser hit four batters, tying a modern-day National League record.

He was wilder than Carmen Electra.

The Astros probably would have been seriously peeved if Nice-Guy Hershiser hadn’t beaten a path between the pitching mound and home plate while running up there to apologize.

If it had been predictable just how pitifully Hershiser would pitch, Davey Johnson wouldn’t have started him. But there had been concerns that, because of a minor but bothersome groin injury, Hershiser would have to give way early to Carlos Perez.

“I hope not,” Dodger General Manager Kevin Malone said before the game.

So did everyone else who has watched Perez pitch in the last 12 months, but Malone insisted he didn’t mean it like that.

He meant that he’d rather see Perez pitch over the weekend in Cincinnati instead of against the Astros, who like left-handers.

As it turned out, Perez pitched relatively well in 3 2/3 innings. He was booed only once, after giving up a run-scoring single to pitcher Shane Reynolds. Hershiser avoided such embarrassment an inning earlier by hitting him with a pitch.

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It’s not fair to evaluate a team based on one inning. But if you had to pick one in which to scrutinize the Dodgers, the first inning Wednesday night was better than most. You could have spotted several areas in which they need to improve and still been home before dark.

Roger Cedeno’s stolen base in the first inning was the 10th in 10 attempts by baserunners against Dodger catchers this season, the eighth against Todd Hundley.

Malone said before the game that Hundley has more “zip” on the ball than he had last season when, as the Dodgers learned too late to get Charles Johnson back, he was nowhere near recovered from his 1997 surgery.

Malone added that most of the stolen bases against the Dodgers this season have been off the pitchers, not the catchers.

“It was too easy last season to point a finger at Todd because of the arm,” Dodger bench coach Jim Tracy said.

He has been working since the start of spring training with the pitchers to speed up their releases so that Hundley or backup Chad Kreuter have at least an even chance to throw out runners.

“But it’s not only that,” Tracy said. “As a group, we’re trying to do some other things to interrupt baserunners’ timing.”

After walking Cedeno in the top of the first, for example, Hershiser threw to first base three consecutive times in an attempt to hold on the former Dodger.

It hardly discouraged him.

As soon as Hershiser threw to the plate, Cedeno stole second.

There was little doubt that he stole that one on Hundley.

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Assessing the state of the Dodgers after the first homestand, Malone said he liked them better than he did a year ago, even though the 8-6 record is barely an improvement over last season’s 7-7.

“There’s a lot better camaraderie in the clubhouse,” he said.

In other words, the black cloud that used to hover over Raul Mondesi’s locker has disappeared.

The only controversy so far concerns the red synthetic surface surrounding the playing field. Dodger infielders, who already have committed a couple of miscues because of it, don’t like it, fearing that they will suffer serious scrapes if they dive on it in pursuit of foul balls.

Dodger officials didn’t think of that, never having seen the Dodgers dive for balls last season.

Maybe the Dodgers will be more aggressive defensively, which will be necessary because they don’t appear to have improved fundamentally.

In that fateful first inning Wednesday night, second baseman Mark Grudzielanek and right fielder Shawn Green allowed a catchable fly ball off the bat of Ken Caminiti to fall between them for a run-scoring single. Gary Sheffield later misfired on a throw, enabling runners to advance to second and third. They then scored on a double by catcher Mitch Meluskey.

As pathetic as he was, Hershiser conceivably could have gotten out of the inning without giving up a run.

The Dodgers’ problems hitting with runners on base continued in the bottom of the first. With runners on first and second and one out, Green grounded out to first--at least he advanced the runners--and Eric Karros popped out to shortstop.

That was only one inning. It’s only April. But September comes fast.

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Randy Harvey can be reached at his e-mail address: randy.harvey@latimes.com