CLOSE CALL

PITTSBURGH —  When he’s hot, he’s hot.

But when he’s not, somebody in the outfield seats usually winds up with a souvenir.

Dodger reliever Todd Worrell handed out two souvenirs in the second game of Monday night’s doubleheader at Three Rivers Stadium, one to a fan in center field and another to one in left.

Worrell gave up home runs on consecutive pitches in the ninth inning, turning a 3-1 Dodger lead into a 4-3 defeat.

“I don’t like to have bad outings,” Worrell said. “But people always tend to point their finger at the reliever. You ride the good times as long as you can. When you have rough outings, that’s part of the job.”

It’s not the first time that Worrell has turned fastballs into gopher balls and, the Dodgers fear, that it might not be the last. But . . .

“Who would you like me to pitch?” Manager Bill Russell asked. “I’m telling you, this is our closer. He’s our guy. If it wasn’t for him, we wouldn’t be where we are at. He’s the guy we live or die with.”

Literally. There seems to be no in between with Worrell. He either blows down the side or they blow him down.

Living with Worrell: He has 33 saves, second by one to National League leader Rod Beck. Saturday, Worrell earned his 125th save as a Dodger, tying Jim Brewer for the most in club history. And with 253 saves altogether, he is sixth among active pitchers and 11th on the all-time list. He has had 30 or more in three successive seasons and six times overall. Last season, his best, he saved 44 games.

Dying with Worrell: He has blown eight save opportunities this season, meaning that roughly one of every five has ended in disaster.

His home runs-to-innings pitched ratio is 5-1. He has given up 10 home runs in 50 1/3 innings.

Some of those home runs were crushing.

There were ninth-inning homers by Mark Lewis and Rick Wilkins of the Giants in a seven-run rally that enabled the Giants to salvage one of four games at Dodger Stadium in July.

There was a 12th-inning home run by Sammy Sosa that gave the Cubs a victory at Chicago after Greg Gagne had given the Dodgers the lead in the top of the 12th with a homer.

There was a ninth-inning home run by Darrin Fletcher the next night in Montreal that tied the score, Mike Piazza saving Worrell in the 10th with a homer of his own.

And, of course, there was Monday in Pittsburgh.

“A performance like this would linger in anybody’s mind.” Worrell said. “It’s not forgotten in 15 minutes, but the next time I go out there I don’t need to think about the bad things that happened. If I dwell on that, I’m not going to be effective.”

“He challenges guys,” Dodger pitching coach Dave Wallace said. “It’s either you or him. When it works for him, it’s very good. And when it doesn’t, it’s not so good. You roll the dice and, most times, you are ahead.”

But do the Dodgers have any other dice to roll, any other options to try?

They have two. They could:

* Try another closer when Worrell is struggling.

* Try to make better use of their starting pitchers.

Suggestion 1: The Dodgers may be without Worrell after this year anyway, either because he decides to retire at 38, or because he decides to end his career in St. Louis. where he began it.

With that in mind, the Dodgers are already thinking of either Darren Dreifort or Scott Radinsky as the closer of the future.

They could see if that future is now.

“It takes a special guy to come in with the game on the line,” Russell said. “That’s why they are making the big bucks. You’ve got to come in and throw strikes and get ahead of the hitters.

“I’m not saying the other guys don’t have the stuff and I’m not saying we wouldn’t use them if we were put in that situation, but it’s pretty tough.”

Wallace was a little stronger.

“We’re not averse to doing that if we had to,” he said when asked if the Dodgers would consider using another closer. “The good thing about our bullpen is that we have a lot of depth. All our guys are capable.”

The problem is, in this age of specialization, all relief pitchers are not equal.

Every team has a long relief man, a setup man and a closer. There are pitchers who are brought in when the team needs a ground ball, pitchers who are brought in when the team needs a strikeout, and pitchers who are brought in because of the righty-lefty percentages.

And in this age of charts and graphs and computer printouts, when everyone’s role is defined by the end of spring training, few seem willing to try something different.

But why can’t a long-relief man become a closer? Why can’t a setup man pitch long relief? Why shouldn’t a closer in a slump be allowed to work in a less pressure-packed situation for a few games to work out his problems?

Suggestion 2: Who came up with the idea that 100 pitches was a danger point for starters, the time to start looking at the bullpen, the time to start worrying about hurting the arm?

Why not 85 pitches? Why not 110?

In this age when the complete game has gone the way of the dead ball, only Greg Maddux of the Atlanta Braves, or anybody pitching a no-hitter, is allowed free rein after 100 pitches.

Imagine the reaction of former Dodger Don Drysdale if a manager had come out to tell him he had thrown 100 pitches.

Drysdale would have told the manager that he had at least 100 more pitches left and then, if the manager had persisted, Drysdale might have told him something that could not appear in this paper.

In Drysdale’s era, which wasn’t that long ago, pitchers pitched nine innings every four days as long as they were effective. Sandy Koufax twice had 27 complete games in a season. The Dodgers’ top 10 in innings pitched since coming to Los Angeles are all over 300 innings. The Dodgers as a team last season had six complete games. Hideo Nomo led the club in innings pitched with 228 1/3.

What does this have to do with Worrell’s performance Monday?

Tom Candiotti started that game and went six innings, giving up three hits and an unearned run.

He was taken out after throwing--horrors!--94 pitches.

“He was struggling,” Russell said.

So were the Pirates who were batting against Candiotti.

“I didn’t have a chance,” Candiotti said when asked if he’d argued to stay in. “But that’s the way they do it here. When I was in the American League, you went until you didn’t have it anymore. You went until you won or lost.

“It’s frustrating, but the flip side is that you understand that, with as strong a bullpen as we have here. It’s easier to make a change. The game is starting to change in that respect.”

The way Candiotti was pitching, and especially since he was throwing a knuckleball, which is easy on the arm, he might have been able to go all the way.

Which would have taken care of the need for a closer.

Theoretically, your five best pitchers are your starters. That’s why they start. But with modern thinking, they have been turned into long relief men, five- and six-inning pitchers.

Why not invent a device that can be strapped around the arm of a pitcher that will start beeping when that arm has thrown 100 pitches?

That will save a manager a trip to the mound.

Yes, the Dodgers have options, if Worrell continues to struggle.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

BY THE NUMBERS

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1996 1997 SAVES 44 33 RANK 1st (tie) 2nd BLOWN SAVES 9 8 SAVE % 83 73.3 SAVE % RANK 15th 23rd RECORD 4-6 2-4 EARNED-RUN AVERAGE 3.05 5.01

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