Dodgers Need Help With This Delivery

One day after Eric Karros’ dramatic home run into a sea of white washrags--next week they’re giving away, what, clamshell soap?--Dodger fans witnessed more late magic Saturday.

This time it was Gary Sheffield, one out in the ninth inning, hitting a ball high into the air and waving his right hand in brilliant Carlton Fisk fashion.

Only, he was trying to coax it foul.

This is what sloppy starting pitching does to a pennant race.

It throws itself in front of momentum. It hacks away at inspiration. It squeezes the life from a smile.

It takes happiness and turns it into a hangover, the demon.

On Saturday, sloppy starting pitching made certain that perhaps the grandest gesture of the season was followed by one of the most futile.

Karros’ eighth-inning homer Friday night against the San Francisco Giants began the Dodgers’ march toward September.

It took young Eric Gagne all of two innings Saturday afternoon to halt it.

Those three runs driven home by Karros in one of the Dodgers’ most dramatic comeback victories of the year?

Gagne gave back every bit of it in the second inning, allowing the Giants exactly that many runs on two dumb pitches.

Two innings later, he gave up two more runs after a silly walk.

And by the time it got to Sheffield in the ninth inning, with a runner on first and none out?

His high foul did not follow his instructions--one of the few balls that hasn’t been listening--and was caught by catcher Bobby Estalella.

Two out later, the Dodgers had lost, 5-2, in a game that had seemingly ended hours earlier.

“Well, I was trying,” Sheffield said with a grin. “It was just one of those days.”

These Dodgers, blowing a chance to gain on both the Giants and Arizona Diamondbacks in one nine-inning swoop, have had too many of those days this season.

Those chants of, “Beat L.A.” coming from one of the Dodger luxury boxes Saturday . . . that wasn’t Bob Daly’s box, was it?

If the Dodgers don’t address their sloppy starting pitching, both now and in the off-season, then you know that it was.

“That’s what really makes me mad,” Gagne said afterward. “To have a big rally, a three-run homer to win a game, and then I follow it up by giving up five runs so fast?”

He was really angry Saturday, tearing his glove off his hand after giving up one of three home runs, bending over in frustration, stalking off the mound.

He’s not alone.

As the Dodgers fall to 4-11 in his starts--while he falls to 1-6--Gagne has become an unusual symbol for where this new administration hopes to go . . . and why it’s not there yet.

Gagne’s pitches buzz and slide like those pucks he shot in Montreal as a child. No less an honest critic than Sheffield says the Dodgers would be foolish to trade him while he’s still only 24.

“That’s the kind of guy--great stuff, great makeup--you can’t let get away,” he said.

One day, maybe by the end of next year, Gagne could be one of the leaders on the staff.

But at this moment, he does not belong pitching every five days in a pennant race.

He needs more time. He needs more help. He needs a bigger safety net.

At the end of last season, Gagne had a 2.10 earned-run average in five starts, but the Dodgers were out of contention.

This year, that nice little waltz has become a daily salsa dance, and his rookie stumbling has long since gotten old.

“Lots of young guys go through what he’s going through, but it would be better for him if we were rebuilding,” Sheffield said. “When you’re on a team expected to win, it’s more noticeable.”

As Gagne admirably admitted, it was downright glaring Saturday.

Second inning, 2-2 count to shortstop Rich Aurilia, Gagne decides to slightly alter his delivery and throw a fancy sinking pitch.

It doesn’t sink, and Aurilia hits it far over Sheffield’s head for a home run.

Said Manager Davey Johnson: “I’ve seen him do that a couple of times this year and haven’t been real pleased with it.”

Acknowledged Gagne: “People aren’t beating me, I’m beating myself.”

A bigger mistake occurred two batters later, with Armando Rios on second base and two out and No. 8 hitter Estalella batting.

Johnson showed his confidence in Gagne by not walking Estalella even though the pitcher was on deck.

“I’m a better hitter than he is,” Johnson said of the Giant catcher, smiling. “He doesn’t exactly strike the fear of God in you.”

Yet, after getting ahead 1-and-2 on him, Gagne forgot the base was open and threw what should have been a bounced waste pitch directly across the plate.

Estalella hit his 10th home run--we’d love to see a certain 57-year-old manager do that--and the Giants had all the runs they needed.

Said Johnson: “With a base open, you don’t have to give in.”

Acknowledged Gagne: “It’s all about mistakes, and I’m really getting sick of it.”

So what should the Dodgers do?

They should continue working to find a starting pitcher that can keep them in this race.

They should continue to push their teaching personnel to reach Gagne. And if that doesn’t work, they should find new teaching personnel.

They should spend this off-season not in search of an all-world shortstop, but a couple of all-day pitchers.

They should do all that, or they are going to have more days like Saturday.

And with many more days like Saturday this season, they can find another use for the leftover white washrags from Friday’s promotion.

Pass them out at the first home game after the trading deadline, Aug. 4 against the Milwaukee Brewers.

Call it White Flag Night.

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