Dodgers Lose Game, Then Place Gibson on the Disabled List

ST. LOUIS —  An extra scorecard would have come in handy Saturday just to keep track of all the Dodgers who were sent packing, for one reason or another, before the end of their 1-0 loss in 11 innings to the St. Louis Cardinals.

Kirk Gibson (injured), pitching coach Ron Perranoski (ejected), reliever Alejandro Pena (expelled) and pitcher Fernando Valenzuela (excused, with honor) were all absent by the time Jose Oquendo’s two-out, bases-loaded single off Tim Crews broke a scoreless tie and sent the Dodgers to their third consecutive loss on this six-game trip that ends here today.

Gibson, who hasn’t started in the last four games and has been on the lineup card in just three of the Dodgers’ last 13 games, was on a plane bound for Los Angeles, where he was examined by Dr. Frank Jobe on Saturday night. The left fielder was then placed on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to Wednesday, because of what is being described as tendinitis in his left hamstring.

The Dodgers, who have scored just 10 runs since leaving home last Sunday, summoned Chris Gwynn from triple-A Albuquerque to replace Gibson, even though Manager Tom Lasorda had maintained as recently as Friday night that the Dodgers were better off with a crippled Gibson than no Gibson at all. Gwynn arrived in St. Louis Saturday night.

Gibson apparently felt differently.

Said Lasorda: “He told us how he felt this morning and that’s why he went back to see the doctor.”

The Dodgers were forced to make do without Perranoski, who was ejected by home-plate umpire Bob Davidson with one out in the bottom of the 10th inning, two Cardinal runners on base, and Pena having a 1-and-0 count on pinch-hitter Willie McGee.

Perranoski, who had been standing at the top of the dugout steps waving his arms, said he was trying to get the attention of catcher Rick Dempsey. Davidson thought Perranoski was yelling at him, according to umpire crew chief Doug Harvey, which is why Davidson tore off his mask and yelled something back to Perranoski.

“Bob Davidson turned and told Ron Perranoski, ‘What? I can’t hear what you’re saying,’ ” Harvey said. “That’s when Perranoski called him a personal name and Davidson jerked him.”

When Perranoski charged the field to make sure Davidson heard him loud and clear, Lasorda followed, in order to vent his own displeasure. But what went unnoticed by the umpires, who were primarily concerned with making sure Perranoski left the premises, was Lasorda walking back to the mound with pitcher Pena.

And that was a no-no. Why? Because Perranoski already had visited Pena when McGee was first announced as a pinch-hitter, and baseball rule 8.06 (a) explicitly states that a manager or coach cannot make a second visit to the mound while the same batter is at bat, or the pitcher will be removed after the completion of the at-bat.

“Technically the umpire is supposed to stop you from going out (a second time), but they didn’t stop me,” said Lasorda, who announced he was playing the game under protest.

The rulebook puts umpires under no obligation to keep a manager from committing such a gaffe, but Harvey said it’s a standard practice.

“Usually if a manager is on the way to the mound, we stop him cold,” Harvey said. “But this situation just got away from us. I told Tommy, ‘If we had realized what was taking place, we would have stopped you,’ but he went to the pitcher’s mound and got away from us. . . . You can’t focus in 900 different directions.”

Harvey is in his 28th season as a National League umpire, and this was a first for him.

Before Pena left, McGee lined out on the next pitch. Then, Ray Searage, the man who replaced him, retired pinch-hitter Tom Pagnozzi to end the inning, just as Jay Howell had dodged potential trouble the previous two innings by getting Vince Coleman and Pedro Guerrero to bounce into double plays.

“See, it had absolutely no bearing on the game,” Lasorda said of the 10th-inning tempest. “The only thing is, we had to lose the pitcher.”

How the 11th would have passed if Pena were still around is open to speculation. Against Searage, however, Coleman started the inning with a double and was sacrificed to third by Ozzie Smith. Intentional walks were issued to Terry Pendleton and Guerrero, loading the bases.

Crews, the fifth Dodger pitcher, got Tom Brunansky to pop to Willie Randolph for the second out, then quickly got two strikes on Oquendo, who lost his grip on his bat and sent it flying on strike two.

Oquendo lined the next pitch, however, into right field, to the delight of a Busch Stadium crowd of 40,282.

“I was positive I was going to get out of it, but he hit a great pitch, a split-finger that was four or five inches off the plate,” Crews said. “When it left my hand, I thought, ‘This will be a strikeout pitch or he’ll take it for a ball,’ but somehow or another he hit it.

“We’ve been having trouble scoring runs, so to give up just one run and lose makes it hard to accept this loss.”

Difficult considering the performance of Valenzuela, who entered the game with a 4.79 earned-run average, had allowed 24 hits and walked 14 in just 20 2/3 innings, and was looking for his first win since last June 14.

Against the Cardinals, Valenzuela gave up just four hits--three singles and a double by Coleman--and walked just one batter. The Cardinals hit several shots off the left-hander--including one smash by Pendleton right at Valenzuela in the fourth--but this outing clearly offered comfort to those who contend that Valenzuela can still be effective with a not-so-fast fastball.

“He moved the ball around, kept it down and stayed ahead of hitters,” said Perranoski, who has been after Valenzuela for some time to throw more sinkers. “He threw some sinkers, cut some fastballs, and had a lot of movement on his fastball.

“He threw just 24 pitches in the first three innings. You’ve got to be pleased with that.”

And of course, Valenzuela was. “We’ll see the next time, when I try to do the same thing,” he said.

Maybe next time, the Dodgers will do more than they did with Ken Hill, a Cardinal rookie and at 23, the youngest player on the St. Louis roster. The right-hander was at his best in the eighth, when after a walk and single by Alfredo Griffin put Dodgers on the corners, he struck out pinch-hitter Franklin Stubbs on three pitches, then retired Randolph on a checked-swing tapper to the mound.

“I hope that when the hitting comes around, the pitching will still be there, too, and everything will come together,” Crews said.

Dodger Notes

Chris Gwynn, who was voted the team’s top rookie in spring training when he hit .366, was batting .342 before his recall from Albuquerque. . . . Slumping Dodgers on this trip include: Willie Randolph, one for 21; Mike Davis two for 15; Mickey Hatcher four for 20; Mike Marshall three for 18; John Shelby three for 18; Alfredo Griffin, five for 25 in the last six games. The only player hitting with any consistency is Eddie Murray, who is eight for 18 (.444) on this trip, with seven extra-base hits and six RBIs. Murray had a double Saturday in four trips.