Reds Slip Past Dodgers, Who Just Slip Up : Baseball: Neidlinger’s effort is wasted in the eighth inning when Searage and Crews each throw a wild pitch after Griffin’s error to help Cincinnati score the game’s only run.

CINCINNATI —  Dodger historians should visit the Riverfront Stadium pitching mound today before a groundskeeper rakes away Tuesday’s memories.

They will find a deep, wide cleat mark at the front right-hand side that will be hard for Tim Crews to forget.

It is the spot where the relief pitcher slipped, and the Dodgers fell a step further out of the National League West race.

With the bases loaded in the eighth inning of a scoreless tie between the Dodgers and Cincinnati Reds, Crews’ left spike was caught in the clay. His pitch to Chris Sabo, which was supposed to be low and away, was far, far away.

The ball sailed several feet wide of catcher Mike Scioscia’s glove and bounced to the backstop, allowing Billy Hatcher to score from third base in Cincinnati’s 1-0 victory.

As Hatcher crossed the plate just ahead of Crews, Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda froze on the bench. The Dodgers’ infielders ducked their heads and turned away. And the relief pitcher needed an antacid.

“I started getting heartburn all of a sudden,” Crews said.

Before 31,154, the Dodgers lost a game that champions do not lose.

The Reds’ winning rally featured two walks, an error, two wild pitches and no hits . Rookie Jim Neidlinger (0-1) allowed two hits in 7 2/3 innings and was the losing pitcher. The Dodgers put 10 runners on base, stranding them all.

“Winning a game like this is important for us during a bad stretch,” said Red Manager Lou Piniella, whose first-place team won for only the fourth time in 15 games. “This shows that somebody up there likes the Reds, too.”

Sometimes it’s difficult for anyone to like the Dodgers, as even catcher Rick Dempsey admitted.

“You have got to win 50 out of the 70 one- and two-run games that you play every year, and we can’t seem to do that,” Dempsey said. “We can’t seem to win the big ones. There is always some little flaw some place that costs us a run.

“It isn’t that we play bad, it’s just that we get outplayed.”

Either way, the third-place Dodgers are nine games behind the Reds, losing the first game of a three-game series that some believed the Dodgers needed to sweep to remain in pennant contention.

“(Neidlinger) pitched a great game, but this was bittersweet, because you can’t get any sweetness out of a game like this,” Lasorda said.

Neidlinger, making his second major league start, entered the complicated eighth inning having given up only two hits with no walks and six strikeouts. He was outpitching Dodger nemesis Tom Browning, who allowed eight hits.

Joe Oliver flied to left for the first out of the eighth, then Hatcher grounded to shortstop Alfredo Griffin. The former All-Star’s struggles in the field this season continued when the ball bounced off the top of his glove and off his legs for an error.

After committing only 14 errors last season, Griffin has 21 errors this year with 55 games remaining. Those problems, combined with his .227 average, have convinced the Dodgers to shop him to a pennant contender if they fall out of the race. Waiting to replace him is triple-A standout Jose Offerman.

“I screwed up the play, what can I say?” Griffin said. “We gave the game away.”

Browning bunted Hatcher to second base, bringing up Larkin. Neidlinger, who threw six innings against the Reds in his major league debut last week, grew tired.

He fell behind, 3-and-0 to Larkin, then threw a strike, then walked him. Up stepped left-handed hitting Paul O’Neill, who had the Redsw’ only two hits. Neidlinger fell behind, 2-and-0, and was replaced by left-hander Ray Searage.

“I was tired, I wasn’t getting the ball over, I didn’t want to come out but I knew it was for the best,” Neidlinger said.

Searage threw two strikes to even the count at 2-and-2, but then advanced Hatcher to third with a wild pitch. He threw another ball and O’Neill was walked to load the bases, although the walk was charged to Neidlinger.

Searage was then relieved by Crews, causing the unusual statistic in which Searage did not face a batter but still threw a wild pitch.

Crews was called because bullpen stopper Jay Howell is still suffering from a swollen left knee that may cause him to miss the rest of the series. Jim Gott, despite a recent hot streak, has only pitched in one save situation this year.

And Crews, who had only one wild pitch this season and three wild pitches in 232 career innings, looked like a good bet. He threw a pitch that Sabo fouled off, then threw another pitch past him.

Then, trying to throw a slider that would fool him into a strikeout, he lost it. While running to cover home plate, he fell again, although the speedy Hatcher would have beaten any throw.

Said Crews: “I was trying to throw the ball down and then I slipped. . . . “

The Dodgers were retired in order in the ninth inning by reliever Randy Myers, who has allowed the Dodgers one earned run in 26 2/3 during his career.

The Dodgers had their chances, but Hubie Brooks stranded runners on base with a fly-ball out and strikeout, and Eddie Murray stranded a runner on third with a grounder.

Dodger Notes

Jim Neidlinger, who is already the best fifth starter the Dodgers have used this season, lowered his earned-run average to 0.66. Neidlinger has shown maturity, using curveballs and sinkers in pressure situations, perhaps because he is 25 and has pitched in the minor leagues for seven seasons. “I think went a long way toward establishing myself as the fifth starter here,” he said. Catcher Rick Dempsey said, “He pitched like a veteran major league pitcher. This was one of the best games I’ve seen anybody pitch here this year.” . . . While the Dodger defense struggled, the Reds were helped with three great plays from shortstop Barry Larkin. His best was in the seventh inning, when he stopped Alfredo Griffin’s grounder behind second base and threw him out.

Third base coach Joe Amalfitano fell in the shower Monday night and suffered a cut on his head that required 22 stitches. Amalfitano was replaced on the coaching lines by Manager Tom Lasorda. He should return today.

The Pittsburgh busboy who was allegedly assaulted by Griffin and Juan Samuel on July 21 said that the Dodgers have contacted his employer, Chauncy’s bar-restaurant, in what appears to be an effort to have the charges dropped. “The Dodgers have not talked to me since it happened, but I know they called Chauncy’s, and I think they were talking about having it dropped,” said Wilson Sturgeon Jr. The players are scheduled to appear for a preliminary hearing in Pittsburgh on Aug. 27. The Dodgers have also retained a Pittsburgh-area lawyer, who has contacted Sturgeon’s lawyer, Arthur Bloom, to discuss a possible lawsuit. “We are still having discussions,” Bloom said. Sturgeon, who missed a week of work because of the fights, recently visited an orthopedic surgeon because of a lower back pain allegedly suffered in the fight.