Call It Dodger Blew -- as in Fuse

On Thursday night, Manager Bill Russell shoved pitcher Ismael Valdes out of the dugout when he went into a rage after being pulled for a pinch-hitter.

On Sunday, another pitcher--Pedro Astacio--threw a fit and stormed out of the dugout when Russell pulled him for a pinch-hitter after the fourth inning in a 9-3 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals before 42,710 at Dodger Stadium.

Astacio (3-5), who gave up five runs and nine hits in his shortest start since last June, had a confrontation on the mound with Russell after Tom Lampkin’s leadoff home run in the fourth.

Once in the dugout, Astacio threw his glove and hat against a wall and continued to have heated words with Russell before being restrained by third-base coach Joe Amalfitano. Astacio also kicked a bucket of sunflower seeds at the end of the bench and banged a bat against a wall as he made his way through the tunnel that leads to the clubhouse.

“I made a mistake,” said Astacio, who has lost five consecutive decisions. “I hope it doesn’t happen again. It was frustration. I was angry at myself.”

Said Russell: “We all have a job to do, and as a manager my job is to get the players to play the best they can any way I can do it and that’s what happened today. Pedro was struggling out there, and things were said and done. Hopefully everything will be better.

“These are just frustrating times. We’re not scoring runs, and we’re not winning and people are going to show emotion. You learn from that, and I’m sure you won’t see Pedro do that again.

“He’s not a bad guy. He’s just frustrated at the way things are going. We don’t hold grudges around here. It’s gone, it’s done.”

Astacio, who gave up nine hits among the first 16 batters, may have felt he was embarrassed on the field by Russell, who marched to the mound and shouted, pointing to the right-field bleachers where Lampkin’s home run landed.

“I was out on the mound and Billy just encouraged him to bear down,” catcher Mike Piazza said. “As far as I’m concerned, I don’t see anything wrong with that. It wasn’t meant to belittle him. It was meant to get him to dig down a little deeper.”

Astacio sprinted off the field after retiring the next three batters and began his tirade in the dugout.

Reggie Smith, seeking to calm Astacio down, followed him to the clubhouse, leaving the Dodgers without a first-base coach for two pitches until Mike Scioscia took over.

Astacio later returned with Smith, who remained in the dugout the rest of the game. Russell said he wanted Smith there so he could instruct the hitters.

“Really nothing happened. It was just frustration,” said Smith, who played for the Dodgers when Don Sutton and Steve Garvey had their much-publicized clubhouse fight in New York on Aug. 20, 1978. “It was just a matter of trying to talk to him and hear his side of what he thought was going on. It was just venting frustration, that’s all it was.

“He came right back to the dugout and apologized to the manager and said it won’t happen again, and Bill told him that he understood how he felt. This isn’t the first time it’s happened in baseball and it won’t be the last.”

There was more frustration for the Dodgers, who lost for the ninth time in 12 games and are two games under .500.

Closer Todd Worrell, inserted into the game in the ninth inning, didn’t pitch much better than Astacio, giving up three runs on a double, a triple and two-run home run to former Dodger second baseman Delino DeShields. Worrell left the clubhouse without speaking to reporters.

The Dodgers--ranked next to last in runs in the majors--had 13 hits but left nine runners on base, bringing their total to 20 the last two games. They failed to score after loading the bases with one out in the first inning.

“For as bad as we’ve been, we’re still not that bad,” Piazza said. “We’re not out there trying to look bad and embarrass ourselves. We’re just not getting the job done.”