Dodgers Slide Into Second

HOUSTON — Forty-six years ago in another time, another place, another pennant race, another Dodger manager, Charlie Dressen, sneered, “The Giants is dead.”

Nobody said it this season, but the Dodgers had to be thinking it when they acquired Eric Young and Otis Nixon, when they revamped their lineup and became a balanced but explosive team of speed and power, when they moved 2 1/2 games in front of the San Francisco Giants in the National League West two weeks ago.

The Giants rose from the dead in 1951 thanks to Bobby Thomson, and they have risen again in 1997, moving back ahead of a Dodger team that suddenly looks not dead, but certainly lifeless, no zip in the arms of its starters or the bats of its hitters.

When the Dodgers lost to the Houston Astros on Friday night at the Astrodome, 10-3, and the Giants beat the Florida Marlins, 1-0, the Giants moved into first place by themselves for the first time since Aug. 22, a full game ahead of the Dodgers with 15 to play.

It was the Dodgers’ fourth consecutive loss and seventh in 10 games.

Are the Dodgers feeling the pressure?

“I think everybody is a little bit,” said catcher Mike Piazza, who continues to swing a hot bat in the company of his slumping teammates, hitting his 35th home run and a double Friday night. “But teams that win find a way to get over that. It’s a tough time of the year. There’s a lot at stake. It’s only natural that people would feel this way.”

The area of greatest concern for the Dodgers has to be starting pitching, once the pride of this team.

But those were in the days when starters were giving the Dodgers six, seven, eight, or, dare we say, nine quality innings.

These days, Manager Bill Russell breathes a sigh of relief when he gets into the sixth without waving toward the bullpen.

The latest to bomb out early was Chan Ho Park, who was gone after 4 2/3 innings Friday after having given up five runs on five hits.

Park (13-7) had become the team’s stopper. But the Dodgers, concerned that he had thrown more innings than ever before, skipped his turn in the rotation once and he hasn’t been the same since.

In his first outing back, he went a season-low four innings against the Marlins last Saturday. Friday, he didn’t last much longer, walking four along with seven strikeouts. Park gave up a two-run double to Derek Bell in the third inning, and an RBI double to Sean Berry, an RBI single to Ricky Gutierrez and a run-scoring fielder’s choice in the fifth before departing.

“I felt so good before the game that maybe I was rushing it,” Park said.

In the previous three games of the Dodgers’ losing streak, Ramon Martinez lasted 4 2/3 innings, Ismael Valdes six innings-plus and Hideo Nomo four.

“I’d like to see more out of our starters,” Russell said. “It’s as simple as that.”

He would like to see more out of his hitters as well, but it wouldn’t be fair to talk about the Dodger offense without mentioning the previous three pitchers they have faced--Miami’s Kevin Brown and the Atlanta Braves’ John Smoltz and Tom Glavine, two Cy Young Award winners and, in Brown, one of the game’s rising stars.

But Shane Reynolds, Houston’s starter Friday night in front of a crowd of 36,817, was made to look like a rising star himself by the Dodgers even though he came into the game with a 6-10 record and a 4.42 earned-run average. Reynolds held the Dodgers to two runs on seven hits in seven innings, striking out a season-high 11 while not walking a batter.

The Dodger bullpen also struggled again Friday on a night when Bell had a single, double, homer (14th) and drove in four and Gutierrez had a single and a triple and drove in three.

Told that his team had lost seven out of 10, Young, who is in the midst of an 0-for-14 slump, said, “Then we can win four in a row and seven out of 10. There is no reason to panic. We just have to turn the ship around before it gets out of hand.”

And before the Giants sail out of sight.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

THE NL WEST / STRETCH DRIVE / HOW THEY STAND

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W L Pct. GB GIANTS 82 65 .558 -- DODGERS 81 66 .551 1

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* Friday’s Results: Astros 10, Dodgers 3; Giants 1, Florida 0.

* Today’s Games: Dodgers at Astros; Giants at Marlins.

Off to Bad Starts

In the Dodgers’ last nine games, only one starting pitcher has lasted seven innings and L.A. has lost six of the games. The breakdown, beginning Friday:

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Pitcher IP Decision Opponent Score Park 4 2/3 L (13-7) Astros 10-3 Martinez 4 2/3 L (9-4) Braves 7-0 Valdes 6 L (9-11) Braves 4-3 Nomo 4 L (13-11) Marlins 8-4 Candiotti 6 2/3 W (10-5) Marlins 9-5 Park 4 ND Marlins W 9-5 Martinez 5 W (9-3) Marlins 7-4 Valdes 7 ND Rangers L 5-2 Nomo 5 1/3 ND Rangers L 13-12

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