Dodgers Are Sadly Mistaken in Loss to Expos

The Dodger offense has been under the microscope during a disappointing start, but other areas became the focus Saturday afternoon after a 6-5 loss to the Montreal Expos at Olympic Stadium.

Fred McGriff hit his team-leading fifth home run, second in as many games and 483rd of his career. The Dodgers had 11 of their 13 hits against Montreal ace Javier Vazquez.

But another ineffective performance by the bullpen and mental miscues overshadowed the offense.

Dodger relievers failed to preserve a big lead for the second time in less than 24 hours. Adrian Beltre and Dave Roberts had major lapses in concentration in the eighth and ninth innings and the combination was too much for a suddenly productive offense to overcome.

“We’ve been swinging the bats pretty good the last few days, and that’s really encouraging,” said catcher Paul Lo Duca, who doubled and singled. “We had our chances, but a lot of things happened.”

Not many were good for the Dodgers.

Rocky Biddle struck out McGriff with Shawn Green on first to earn his eighth save and complete the victory for Luis Ayala (2-1).

After the Dodgers overcame a late four-run rally in Friday’s series opener, the Expos delivered a knockout punch in Saturday’s five-single, four-run seventh before 8,804. Montreal sent 10 batters to the plate while chasing starter Darren Dreifort, who had nine strikeouts in 6 1/3 innings in a sharp outing to that point.

Left-hander Tom Martin faced four batters and failed to record an out Friday, and he gave up a run-scoring single to pinch-hitter Jeff Liefer on Saturday. Martin (0-1) also was charged with an unearned run after shortstop Cesar Izturis misplayed Jose Vidro’s grounder for an error, prolonging the inning and loading the bases.

“I just couldn’t get it in my glove,” Izturis said. “I go out there and try to do my best. If I make an error, that’s the game. It happens.”

Setup man Paul Quantrill hit Vladimir Guerrero with his first pitch to force in Liefer with the go-ahead run, and things quickly worsened for the Dodgers because of Beltre’s baserunning blunder.

Beltre and Alex Cora, who three hits apiece, singled to start the eighth. The Dodgers envisioned another comeback after scoring four runs in the eighth Friday to win, 9-5.

However, the momentum turned when Montreal catcher Michael Barrett nailed Beltre wandering too far off second when Izturis squared to bunt on a high pitch from Scott Stewart. The left-hander then induced a double-play grounder from Izturis.

Even after his second three-hit game of the season, Beltre was the focus of attention for the wrong reason.

“From the bench, the ball clearly beat him. From our vantage point, it beat him by a lot,” Manager Jim Tracy said. “It’s a baserunning situation that you would rather not like to see happen.”

Beltre declined to discuss the play.

“Adrian is trying to get a good jump,” Lo Duca said. “It’s turf, so the ball is going to be a little quicker, and I can understand him trying to get a little extra jump. Obviously, you don’t want to get picked off in that situation.”

With the bunt sign on in the ninth, Roberts flied out to center after pinch-hitter Green walked leading off. Lo Duca flied out and McGriff struck out to end the game.

“It was just a mental mistake,” said Roberts, who singled and had his 15th stolen base. “The first pitch was a ball, I should have bunted on the second pitch and I just didn’t. Trace had it on, and I should have known the bunt was still on.

“We finally start swinging the bat well, and in a game like this where it’s a close, mistakes like that are tough. They’re obviously magnified when you lose and they shouldn’t happen.

“Adrian was just trying to get a good jump. He was just trying to be aggressive. For my end, it was just a mental mistake.”