Big Picture Fading Fast on Dodgers

It seems like conventional baseball wisdom--if the potential game-tying run gets on base with less than two out, bunt him over into scoring position.

But after Paul Lo Duca singled to lead off the ninth inning of a game in which the Dodgers trailed the New York Mets by a run Saturday night, the bunt sign was nowhere to be found as Eric Karros strode to the plate.

Karros struck out against hard-throwing Met closer Armando Benitez.

Marquis Grissom then hit into a fielder’s choice.

And pinch-hitter Dave Hansen grounded out to end the game as the Dodgers lost for the seventh time in their last nine games, losing 5-4 to the Mets in front of a sellout crowd of 54,092 at Dodger Stadium.

When asked if he gave any thought to having Karros drop a sacrifice bunt in the ninth, Dodger Manager Jim Tracy was succinct.

“You don’t ask players to do things that they’re not capable of doing,” Tracy said. “We’ve done a fantastic job this year as a ballclub of bunting runners into scoring position. But there are circumstances, in my mind, which makes it difficult, even if you have your best bunter on your ballclub on the bench. To bunt a 95-, 96-mph [pitch], that’s much easier said than done, believe me.”

What the Dodgers believed they were investing in with their three trade deadline deals was help for their injury-racked pitching staff.

But Saturday night, the three pitchers the Dodgers acquired failed to pay off.

Right-handed starter James Baldwin, who missed his previous start because of a strained abdominal muscle, was effective early but then tired.

Left-handed reliever Terry Mulholland struck out a batter before hitting one with two strikes and two out.

Right-handed reliever Mike Trombley (0-2) gave up the winning run in the eighth inning and took the loss, his second in three nights.

Met reliever Jerrod Riggan (1-2) got the win with an inning of scoreless relief; Benitez got his 28th save.

“I take the blame for this,” said Baldwin, who was charged with four runs and four hits in 6 1/3 innings. He also struck out nine but walked four.

“When the guys give you run support, you’ve got to do your job.”

The Dodgers (67-56) fell 4 1/2 games behind the National League West-leading Arizona Diamondbacks while the Mets (55-68) ended a seven-game losing streak.

After going two for four with a home run and four runs batted in Friday, Gary Sheffield went three for four with a home run, a double and three RBIs Saturday night.

Right fielder Shawn Green also had a milestone.

When he gave the Dodgers a 3-1 lead in the third inning with his line-drive solo homer over the right-field wall, Green’s team-leading 36th home run was also his 100th RBI, setting a single-season Los Angeles Dodger record for RBIs by a left-handed batter. The previous record was shared by Green, who had 99 RBIs last year, and Darryl Strawberry, who had 99 RBIs in 1991.

Green is also the first left-handed-hitting Dodger to drive in at least 100 runs since Duke Snider had 101 RBIs in 1956, when the franchise was in Brooklyn.

The Mets tied the score in the fifth inning with a two-out, bases-loaded double by Mike Piazza.

Piazza’s hit easily scored Rey Ordonez and Matt Lawton, but the relay throw to Lo Duca at home to get Edgardo Alfonzo was deemed in time by home plate umpire Alfonso Marquez, prompting an argument by Met Manager Bobby Valentine that ended with him getting ejected.

Replays showed that while Alfonzo beat the throw home, his right foot missed the plate as he slid by. Lo Duca tagged Alfonzo on his cocked left leg before Alfonzo’s left hand touched the plate.

“It sure looked like he was safe to me,” Valentine said. “But Lo Duca did a good job of blocking the plate and it turns out the ump made the right call.”

Sheffield gave the Dodgers the lead back with his 425-foot solo home run into the left-center pavilion. It was Sheffield’s 27th homer.

After the Mets tied it up in the seventh, the inning in which Mulholland hit left-handed batter Matt Lawton, New York took the lead against Trombley in the eighth.

Desi Relaford, in the game after Robin Ventura left with a bruised left thumb, led off the inning with a double into the left-field corner. The Mets bunted Relaford to third two batters later and he would score on Benny Agbayani’s sacrifice fly to center.

“It’s tough losing a lot of games we could be winning,” Green said, “games we should be winning.”

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