It All Breaks Down for Dodgers

CINCINNATI — Mercifully, it ended quickly Sunday for the Dodgers. Two hours 23 minutes of dropped fly balls, bungled throws, hanging curves, picked-off runners and futile swings at the plate is more than enough for one team.

Tired and ready to go home at the end of an arduous 10-game trip plus a 12-hour detour to Cooperstown, N.Y., for an exhibition, the Dodgers--their bags already packed--lost to the Cincinnati Reds, 8-1, at Cinergy Field.

They might as well have packed their gloves before the game.

The Dodgers committed three errors and could have had one more in a game that dropped them 2 1/2 games behind the NL West-leading San Francisco Giants.

And they managed only four hits against converted reliever Mike Remlinger (5-4), who struck out nine in pitching his first complete game in six years.

The Dodgers, who finished the trip 5-5, might have explained it as an aberration, the inevitable bad game all teams experience. Some did.

But first baseman Eric Karros wasn’t about to let it go that easily.

“I would hope that some people would be upset with the way we played,” he said, anger in his voice. “If we play like we did today, we are going to be going home for good [at the end of the regular season]. . . . I thought it was a pathetic performance. I thought we were atrocious. We have to be set to play for a whole game. The first inning counts just as much as the fifth or the seventh. We were not ready to play.”

Asked why he thought that was, Karros excused himself, perhaps afraid he might say something he would regret.

There was little regret in the Cincinnati clubhouse. The struggling Reds, buried in fourth place in the NL Central at 50-65, took two out of three from the Dodgers.

The offensive stars Sunday for Cincinnati were:

* Outfielder Chris Stynes, who went four for four--including a home run--after a 3-for-3 performance in his National League debut Saturday night.

* Outfielder Reggie Sanders, who hit his 15th home run.

* First baseman Eduardo Perez, who had two hits and drove in three runs.

But Karros was right. The pattern for this game was set in the first inning.

With one out, shortstop Greg Gagne was walked but was picked off.

In the bottom of the inning, shortstop Pokey Reese and Stynes singled off loser Pedro Astacio (7-8), who had won his last four decisions but seemed out of sync from the start. Perez then doubled to left, driving in the only runs Remlinger would need. Left fielder Billy Ashley had a horrible time with the ball, misplaying it to allow Perez to go to third and then strained his lower back on the throw to the infield.

But the problems were just beginning for Ashley and the Dodgers.

With two out in the fourth inning, Remlinger hit a ball that went off the heel of center fielder Roger Cedeno’s glove for a two-base error. Reese singled him home, then went to second on Ashley’s throw home. Stynes hit a bouncer to Todd Zeile at third. Zeile gloved it, but as he reached in to grab the ball it slipped out of his hands. Stynes was credited with a hit, although Zeile might have had him with a strong throw.

And on it went.

In the fifth, Perez walked and went to second when relief pitcher Mark Guthrie’s throw to first got away from Karros, the Dodger first baseman charged with the error. From there, Perez scored on a sinking liner hit by Jon Nunnally that Ashley tried unsuccessfully to reach, the ball skipping under his glove.

Astacio lasted only four innings, giving up six runs, five of them earned, on eight hits.

The Dodgers finally broke up Remlinger’s shutout in the ninth inning when Karros singled in Nelson Liriano.

Cincinnati Manager Jack McKeon gave his team a pep talk after the game.

“I came in [the clubhouse],” McKeon said, “and told my players that we are not doormats anymore. This is a start. We are going to be OK. We can play with the big boys now.”

Zeile said the Dodgers will also be OK.

“It was just a bad game,” he said. “It happens. If you could play 162 good games, you would not be human.”

And if you played 162 games like the one the Dodgers did Sunday, you would be looking for a job.