Dodgers’ Skid Simply Is Too Bad for Words : Baseball: They lose to the Pirates, 4-3, their fourth consecutive loss. Mistakes continue to hurt 3-8 L.A.

The shouting of Manager Tom Lasorda before Saturday’s game didn’t come close to that milestone of a meeting he held in 1977, when he uttered 163 expletives in 14 minutes, and his team was in first place.

This time, the meeting before the game featured Lasorda’s speech about how the team has to stop losing before the streak picks up momentum.

In other words, Lasorda told his players that they are much better than a 3-7 team. Now, make that 3-8.

The Dodgers lost their fourth consecutive game, 4-3, to the Pittsburgh Pirates, who won their sixth in a row at Three Rivers Stadium. Darren Dreifort (0-1) lost in the bottom of the ninth when Jeff King singled past a diving Delino DeShields and Jay Bell scored.

“I don’t know how you hit that kid (Dreifort), but I did,” said King, who was four for five.

In the Dodger clubhouse after the game, the players were shaking their heads, believing the game never should have come down to the ninth inning. The Pirates hadn’t led all night, tying the Dodgers at 2-2 in the fourth inning and at 3-3 in the sixth.

It was the Dodgers’ sixth loss by two runs or fewer. Once again, there were fundamental mistakes and a failure to execute at the plate when it counts.

“When you are not scoring, you cannot make these mistakes,” said Orel Hershiser, who gave up three runs in six innings and left with the score tied, 3-3.

“They are amplified because we are not scoring. But how many games have we lost by one run? When that happens, it’s not a symptom, it’s a problem.”

Lasorda shook up the batting order, which had as much to do with trying something different as it did with facing Pirate left-hander Randy Tomlin. The most effective move was putting Mike Piazza in the fourth spot ahead of Tim Wallach, the Dodgers’ hottest batter, in the hope that Piazza would get better pitches.

Wallach, who didn’t get many good pitches to hit, walked twice. He has hit in seven consecutive games.

Piazza responded by getting three singles and scoring a run in the sixth inning on a line drive off the mound by Raul Mondesi that put the Dodgers ahead, 3-2. Still, it wasn’t a happy Piazza who faced reporters after the game.

“It doesn’t make a difference (if I’m hitting), if we are not winning ballgames; that’s what’s important,” Piazza said.

The most glaring mistake came in the third inning, after DeShields’ single to left scored Jose Offerman and gave the Dodgers a 2-0 lead. Piazza followed with a line drive to left field that should have scored DeShields, but he held up at third base, not even seeing coach Joe Amalfitano waving him home until it was too late.

Al Martin, playing deep, tried to glove Piazza’s drive on the short hop, but the the ball bounced off Martin’s chest and rolled in front of him. Meanwhile, DeShields, who was trying to steal second base on the pitch, slid into the bag, later saying he didn’t know where the ball was.

“I looked up and saw the ball in front of (Martin), but I didn’t think it was going to roll that far in front of him so that I could score,” said DeShields, who rounded third. “I started back to third and then I looked at Joey waving me home, and I picked him up kind of late.”

Said Amalfitano: “Sometimes the coach has to become the runner’s eyes. I didn’t say anything to Delino, but he said to me, ‘I’m sorry, I messed up.’ I told him that before the season is over, he will be stealing runs for us.”

After Wallach walked, Eric Karros, who would strand seven baserunners in the game, struck out with the bases loaded.

“You cannot make mistakes, period,” said Wallach, who was one for two. “We need to be more aggressive instead of sitting back. When you do that, bad things happen.”

Mondesi saved a run with a throw from right field in the sixth to keep the score 3-3, but the basics had hurt the Dodgers in the fourth inning, when the Dodgers led, 2-1, and Hershiser was pitching to Tomlin. Wallach failed to get Jose Offerman’s attention to try to position him closer to third base, and Tomlin hit a drive that would have been right at Offerman. Instead, Tomlin’s hit tied the score.

“It’s kind of frustrating, I think we were all convinced coming out of spring training that nothing like this would happen,’ DeShields said. “To be 3-8, none of us anticipated that.”