Dodgers Go Down Swinging Again : Stubbs’ Homer and 13 Other Hits Produce Only 6-4 Loss

Nights like these, it’s a wonder that Tom Lasorda isn’t the one booking a trip to the Caribbean, instead of homesick Dominicans Pedro Guerrero and Mariano Duncan.

Perhaps the Dodger manager could check into a Club Med, although the scene there might remind him too much of the Dodger offense in Tuesday’s 6-4 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies: Lots of singles promising plenty of action, but nothing to write home about--at least not until a futile two-run rally in the ninth.

The Dodgers had 14 hits, all but Steve Sax’s leadoff double of the singles variety until Franklin Stubbs’ 21st homer leading off the ninth. They put 12 runners in scoring position, but also left a dozen men on base.

The Phillies had fewer opportunities, but more free swingers. John Russell’s bases-empty home run in the seventh off Ed Vande Berg tied the score, 2-2, then Glenn Wilson unloaded against Ken Howell with a three-run, opposite-field homer that barely cleared the wall in right in the Phillies’ four-run eighth.

Wilson became the first right-handed hitter to homer off Howell in 79 innings this season. Howell has given up just three home runs this season, the other two to Leon Durham, Chicago’s left-handed hitting first baseman.

“He’s blown me away before,� Wilson said. “I’m glad he didn’t throw me a curve ball.

“I heard the first pitch was 95 (m.p.h.).�

So was the second, he was told.

“I’m glad to hear it wasn’t 96,� Wilson said. “I would have fouled it off.�

With Guerrero back in San Pedro de Macoris and Mike Marshall with a back out of whack, Stubbs is the only Dodger in the lineup with slugger’s credentials.

But Stubbs has gone undercover during a horrendous month-long slump, masquerading as a bunter instead. Nice disguise--Stubbs beat out a bunt for a single Tuesday--but it isn’t doing much for the Dodgers’ run production.

He had gone 61 at-bats without a home run until his towering fly ball off Phillies reliever Steve Bedrosian fell into the seats just inside the right field foul pole, 330 feet from the plate.

“It would have been satisfying if we’d won,� Stubbs said. “But if you don’t win, it isn’t worth a hoot.�

Stubbs, who hadn’t homered since Aug. 4, also committed a costly error in the eighth, failing to pick up Jeff Stone’s ground-ball single to left.

Stone reached second on the play, Vande Berg walked pinch-hitter Ron Roenicke on four pitches, and Von Hayes hit a 130-foot single off his fists for his third hit of the night, breaking the 2-2 tie.

“He hit it, and it worked for him,� Vande Berg said of Hayes’ hit. “I guess you call him a good hitter if he does that.

“Maybe I’ll have to look at my horoscope for next year, maybe it’ll be better.�

A bad moon rising?

“I hope it’s the moon,� said Vande Berg, whose record dropped to 1-5. “The only thing I had going for me was a so-so earned-run average. My record is (expletive), my saves are (expletive), my hits-to-innings pitched ratio is (expletive). I’m (expletive).�

After Hayes’ hit, Lasorda summoned Howell, who struck out Mike Schmidt, the league’s leading home run hitter, only to be ambushed by Wilson.

“I wasn’t going to let Schmidt beat me,� Howell said. “I planned to deal with Wilson when he came along. I blew the first ball by him, and tried to establish the second pitch, but he hit it out of the park.

“When you’re not giving up a lot of home runs and see something like that happen, there ain’t nothing you can do about it.

“It seems different if you see a ball hit way up in the stands. But to be on the field, saying ‘stay in, stay in, stay in,’ and see the ball just barely clear the fence . . . “

Stubbs’ home run made it 6-3, and Enos Cabell singled in another run before Bedrosian retired Dave Anderson on a foul fly to end the game.

The Dodgers remain 10 games behind Houston in the National League West.

The win went to Phillies starter Kevin Gross, who gave up 11 hits in seven innings, but was hurt only by run-scoring singles by Len Matuszek in the third and Steve Sax in the sixth.

Sax popped out with the bases loaded in the second, Mike Scioscia bunted into a double play after three straight hits in the third, Cabell lined out with two in the fifth, and Bedrosian struck out three Dodgers in a row with two runners on in the eighth.

That’s why you won’t see Bill Madlock, for one, joining Guerrero and Duncan in the Dominican.

“It’ll be vacation soon enough,� Madlock said.

Dodger Notes

Pedro Guerrero, who was eligible to come off the disabled list Tuesday but has said he doubts he’ll play again this season, is scheduled to rejoin the team Friday in New York. Guerrero is home in the Dominican Republic, where he said he went to visit his ailing mother. Perhaps Guerrero will bump into Mariano Duncan in the airport. The Dodger shortstop, who has a fractured left foot, has been given permission by the club to fly home to the Dominican from New York, also on Friday. . . . The Dodgers, who drew a crowd of 30,979, are now 111,639 fans off last season’s attendance pace, when they drew 3.26 million. . . . Alejandro Pena, who hadn’t made a start since Aug. 8, gave up five hits and one run in six innings and retired the last nine batters he faced. . . . Franklin Stubbs is the only player in the big leagues with more than 20 home runs and fewer than 50 RBIs. Stubbs has 21 home runs, 48 RBIs. . . . Steve Sax stole his 27th base, matching his 1985 total. . . . The Dodgers plan to call up five players from Albuquerque after their minor league season ends: pitchers Carlos Diaz and Balvino Galvez, catcher Jack Fimple, infielder Larry See, and outfielder Ralph Bryant.