Faced With Adversity, Dodgers Fall

PITTSBURGH — Dodger Manager Bill Russell may have thought he was punishing outfielder Raul Mondesi, setting the tone of his managerial reign by yanking Mondesi out of the lineup after the Dodger outfielder arrived half an hour late for Wednesday night’s game against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

But as it turned out, Russell was wrong.

Mondesi was one of the lucky ones.

Unlike fellow outfielders Chad Curtis Wayne Kirby and Todd Hollandsworth, Mondesi didn’t have to stand in the Three Rivers Stadium outfield and watch balls fly over, around and past him on a night when the Pirates blasted the Dodgers, 12-2, in front of a crowd of 12,232.

In all, Pittsburgh racked up 15 hits, including two homers, a triple and three doubles, against five Dodger pitchers.

Still, there were two bright spots on this dismal night for the Dodgers.

One was that starter Ramon Martinez was knocked out of the game, but not out of the rotation or worse, after getting hit in the face by a vicious liner off the bat of Jeff King.

The other bit of good news the Dodgers could take with them to Cincinnati, where they open a four-game series on Friday night, was that the National League West-leading San Diego Padres also lost Wednesday, leaving the Dodgers a game back.

Martinez lasted five innings, giving up four runs and six hits, his record dropping to 8-6.

But it seemed unlikely he’d last the first inning after King’s shot appeared to hit him squarely in the mouth, sending the 6-foot-4, 186-pounder to the ground with a sickening thud.

Fortunately, the ball glanced off Martinez’s glove before smashing into him, leaving the Dodger right-hander with nothing worse than a swollen lip.

“That [his glove] took most of the speed off,” Martinez said.

As he lay on the ground while a group of frightened Dodgers rushed to his side, was Martinez worried that he had been seriously injured?

“I wasn’t afraid of anything,” he said.

But he was apparently shaken up. Having convinced Russell and pitching coach Dave Wallace that he was OK, Martinez faced Mark Johnson, who smashed Martinez’s first pitch over the fence in right-center field for his 12th homer.

That gave Pittsburgh a lead it would not relinquish on a night when the Dodgers gave up more runs than they have all season outside the city of Denver, which, because of the thin air, deserves its own category.

After the final out, the Dodger clubhouse was, as might be expected, a pretty bleak place.

But nobody was taking the loss harder than Curtis, who was blaming himself for two key hits by the Pirates.

The first was a double by Al Martin that just cleared Curtis’ glove in left-center field in the fifth inning. For Curtis to have come down with that ball, it would have required the type of catch sportscasters use for their play of the week.

Instead, with the score still close at that point at 3-2, Martin went on to steal third and score on a sacrifice fly by King.

The other ball Curtis was agonizing over appeared to be catch-able.

It was hit by Pittsburgh shortstop Nelson Liriano off Dodger reliever Scott Radinsky with the bases loaded in the sixth inning.

Again, the ball went to left center. Again, Curtis leaped high only to have it go over his glove. But this time, Curtis had room to back up, the ball landing on the warning track before bouncing off the wall for a three-run triple that blew the game open and gave the Pirates, last in the NL Central at 51-63, only their third win in 11 games.

“I didn’t think I had any more room,” said Curtis of Liriano’s hit, “so I jumped. I didn’t want to run into the wall and not have a play. But I jumped early.”

Mike Piazza singled in the Dodgers’ first run off Pittsburgh starter and winner Jon Lieber (5-4). Mike Busch’s fifth homer accounted for the other Dodger run.

Not much to show for a night when Mondesi showed up late, and his teammates barely showed up at all.