Gagne, Dodgers Doomed Right From the Start

Eric Gagne knew something was amiss as he warmed up in the Dodger bullpen before taking the field Sunday.

The Dodger starter felt good.

Usually, a decent warmup session is a harbinger of impending doom for Gagne, and subpar bullpen work has preceded his best outings.

The former was the case in the rubber match of a three-game interleague series against the Oakland Athletics.

Gagne gave up five first-inning runs to the Athletics en route to a 6-0 loss in front of 38,733 at Dodger Stadium.

Meanwhile, Oakland’s Kevin Appier held the Dodgers to seven hits in the 11th shutout of his career.

“One [bad] inning, that’s all they needed,” said Gagne. In five innings he gave up six runs on six hits while striking out six. Gagne (1-4) also walked four, hit a batter and uncorked a wild pitch.

“Gagne was rushing a little bit early,” Dodger Manager Davey Johnson said. “He didn’t get into any kind of rhythm.

“Sometimes, he gets into a little problem of getting out in front of himself. That will happen when he rushes like that. After the first inning, he threw pretty well, but the damage was already done.”

Gagne labored through the first with 39 pitches, giving up a leadoff single, walking two, then hitting a batter. Miguel Tejada’s double made the score 3-0 before Gagne recorded an out.

Three batters later, with two out, Gagne pitched to the No. 8 hitter, Eric Chavez, with first base open, runners at second and third and Appier on deck.

Chavez laced a two-run single to left, giving Oakland a 5-0 lead.

“That was my mistake, a big mistake,” Gagne said. “It was supposed to be a change-up down and in the dirt, but it stayed up.”

Catcher Paul LoDuca said Gagne was simply too pumped up to start the game.

“He’s not scared, he just gets excited out there,” LoDuca said. “He wants the ball and wants to throw the ball 100 mph.”

But while Gagne was battling himself, as well as the Athletics, Oakland’s Appier was busy mowing down the Dodgers.

It didn’t hurt that he was staked to a five-run lead before taking the field.

“That was tremendous and it gave me the confidence to start,” said Appier, who improved to 6-3 after striking out six, walking one and giving up seven hits. “My stuff was pretty good. Health-wise, this is the best I’ve felt [in a while]. My command was great.”

He also picked up the first hit of his 12-year career against Gagne, a flare to right field in the second inning.

The Athletics added a run in the fifth on a double steal that the Dodgers botched defensively, allowing Jason Giambi, who had doubled down the right-field line past first baseman Eric Karros, to lumber home while Ben Grieve took second.

With the loss, the third-place Dodgers fell three games behind the National League West-leading Arizona Diamondbacks, who are in town for a four-game series beginning tonight.

With a bevy of left-handed hitters in the Arizona lineup, Dodger lefty reliever Onan Masaoka figures to see some time on the mound against the Diamondbacks, especially after his two innings of shutout ball Sunday.

Masaoka struck out four, walked two and gave up a hit, a ground-rule double to Chavez.

But an uneasy smile crossed Masaoka’s face when he was asked if he figured he’d see much time against Arizona.

After all, the last time the Dodgers faced the Diamondbacks, Masaoka had just been recalled from triple-A Albuquerque and was not used in the three-game Arizona sweep.

“Hopefully, with them having so many lefties, if the situation comes up, I know I can go out there and do it,” said Masaoka, who was optioned to Albuquerque on May 22 after one outing and recalled on June 3. “I know I’m confident in what I can do. At the beginning of the season I had some ups and downs but I’ve got my stuff back.”

Still, Masaoka knows that with the Dodgers’ roster problems, he is a likely choice to be optioned back to the minors in a numbers crunch.

“Seriously, I don’t know what’s happening. I don’t know,” he said. “I thought I was here to stay the last time.”

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INTERLEAGUE PLAY

American vs. National

2000 Wins AL 69 NL 56 4 YEARS Wins NL 418 AL 396 Rockies Rally Past Rangers

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Tom Goodwin’s two-run single capped a four-run eighth inning as Colorado rallied past Texas, 9-8. D6

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Clark Finally Hits Homer for Orioles

Mike Mussina gave up five hits in eight innings and Will Clark hit his first homer since last July as Baltimore beat Philadelphia, 7-2. D7