Dodgers Slip, Fall and Lose to Cubs, 4-2

The Dodgers left 13 runners on base Sunday, twice ending rallies with the bases full. And even when somebody did provide some power with runners on, well, that wasn’t a sure-fire way to score either.

To see Mike Davis round third behind Eddie Murray’s double and then stumble, you’d have to believe there was some kind of force field in effect.

The Chicago Cubs, on the other hand, were getting home plate on a pass. It was that kind of day.

In the eighth inning, after Gary Varsho’s double down the right-field line was plucked out of play by a fan, the umpires thought and thought and then reversed their immediate decision and gave Ryne Sandberg, who was standing on third, home.

The Dodgers protested, some stronger than others, but even they knew this wasn’t a game they deserved to win. And they didn’t.

The Cubs, who got nine hits off Orel Hershiser (4-3), won this one, 4-2, in front of a Dodger Stadium crowd of 46,329.

Hershiser was not always brilliant but he was not taking a shellacking, either.

The Cubs big inning came in the sixth when Dwight Smith grounded a single to center. Singles by Sandberg and Mark Grace loaded the bases. Hershiser struck Varsho out, but Damon Berryhill grounded a single by first baseman Eddie Murray to drive in Smith and Sandberg.

“Three high fastballs in a row,” lamented Hershiser later. “One of those balls, maybe a double-play and I’m out of the inning.”

But the Dodgers weren’t catching many breaks. Whereas the Cubs could score with the bases loaded, the Dodgers could not. Both the fourth and seventh innings ended with all the bases full.

“That’s the way it’s been all season,” the Dodgers’ Mickey Hatcher said. The strange thing, it seemed to him, was “we’re still not losing ground.”

In fact, the Dodgers (15-16) continue to bounce around the .500 level without the power of Kirk Gibson, Mike Marshall and Chris Gwynn.

The only power the Dodgers have was provided by Manager Tom Lasorda, who had the hit of the day when he shoved his own player away from an umpire.

“He was very, very close to getting thrown,” said Lasorda, when Hatcher began piping up after Varsho’s ground-rule double in the eighth inning. “And I didn’t have anyone else to play.”

The bump Lasorda gave Hatcher, a former wide receiver at Oklahoma, was impressive. Hatcher was definitely moved off the line.

“Well, he had a running start,” Hatcher said.

This entertainment came about when the umpires decided that Sandberg, who had been on first, would have scored on Varsho’s double, trophy-seeking fan or not. It was a surprising ruling only in that Sandberg had originally been held up at third.

“As long as I’ve been in the game,” Hatcher said, “I’ve never seen a guy awarded home.”

Hatcher said he and his teammates later agreed that it was a good call. In any event, it was only an insurance run for the Cubs.

“That was a big run?” Lasorda said. “So was the guy who fell down coming around third.”

What happened, somebody wanted to know. “Have to ask him,” Lasorda said.

So somebody asked Davis. He didn’t really know either.

Franklin Stubbs had already scored on Murray’s double and Davis was about to follow behind when he got tangled up between third and home. “I felt I was lost in the middle,” he said.

The Cubs knew where to find him, though. That was the end of the Dodgers’ offense, although they managed to fill the bases in the seventh on the strength of three walks. But that didn’t scare the Cubs much and Pat Perry closed them down. Mitch Williams turned in the final two innings for his 10th save.

The Dodger manager is frustrated by the losing, but doubly frustrated because he can’t do what a manager likes to do best. Make late-inning moves.

“I had certain situations I could hit somebody,” he lamented, “and I didn’t have them. The bases loaded, they bring in a left-hander (Steve Wilson in the fourth) and I can’t bring in a right handed hitter (in place of Franklin Stubbs).”

The Dodger offense must be in the whirlpool because it sure wasn’t on the field.

After Murray’s double in the third, there wasn’t another hard-hit ball all day. From the fifth inning on, in fact, there was a bloop single, three walks, a hit batsman and an infield single. And that was it.

“We were just one pitch short on all our rallies,” Hershiser said.

If this continues, he will, in order to win games like these, have to maintain an ERA better than the 2.01 he now carries.

Dodger Notes

This was the second consecutive game that the umpires reversed a call. This time it went against the Dodgers. Tom Lasorda still thought it was a bad call: “I don’t see how the guy’s (Ryne Sandberg) gonna score on that ball.” The fun of course was watching Lasorda argue when the umpires decided he could and did score. And then seeing Hatcher get in the act. After Lasorda shoved him, Hatcher said, “I just went back to my position and moped.” . . . Dodger Mariano Duncan was the latest casualty in the line of play. He took a Steve Wilson pitch on the forearm as he swung and sported a nice lump on his forearm. He’ll get X-rays but is expected to make the Dodgers’ upcoming road trip. And he confounded Lasorda who asked him if he could hit. “He says, ‘I can hit,’ so he hits and leaves the game.” Duncan said it was a matter of throwing, though. He had tested his arm and it troubled him. . . . Mike Marshall, who ended the game with a towering out in a pinch-hit appearance, is still troubled by a stiff back. Without him and Gibson in the lineup, the Dodgers field a team with only one home-run hitter, Eddie Murray.