BRUTAL EFFORT BY DODGERS : HOUSTON 11, DODGERS 3.

Byline: Eric Noland Daily News Staff Writer

It took the Dodgers 77 days to climb into sole occupation of first place, a feat accomplished last Monday.

It's taken them two days to demonstrate that, at least for the moment, they have no business being there.

The Dodgers produced one of their sloppiest efforts of the season Friday night in losing their second straight to the Houston Astros, 11-3 at Dodger Stadium.

A crowd of 33,273 alternately grumbled, groaned and booed as the Dodgers suffered their second-most lopsided loss of the season. The defense botched play after play, and the pitching - starter Tom Candiotti the prime offender - was perforated for 14 hits.

None of this makes the least bit of sense. The Dodgers returned home after winning five of seven games in such forbidding locales as Atlanta and Chicago. And Houston wasn't considered a particularly nettlesome opponent, arriving here Thursday having dropped six of its previous nine games.

But then one of L.A.'s periodic fits of lethargy set in. Friday night's was particularly distressing.

It wasn't just that Candiotti was smacked around for nine hits and six runs in just 2-1/3 innings. It had more to do with the effort.

In the top of the first inning alone, catcher Mike Piazza had a passed ball, couldn't even get a throw off as the Astros executed a double steal, and allowed Orlando Miller to take two bases on a wild pitch by not hustling to the screen to retrieve the ball.

In the bottom of the first, Eric Karros ill-advisedly tried to advance from first to third on Mike Blowers' single to center - Karros was out by, oh, 30 feet or so.

In the fourth, left fielder Billy Ashley overthrew a cutoff man, allowing a runner to take second.

In the fifth, Piazza was slow to react to a bunt, as if expecting pitcher Joey Eischen to get it, then threw errantly to first after fielding it.

Also in the fifth, shortstop Greg Gagne picked up what should have been an inning-ending double-play ball but had trouble getting it out of his glove. His slow shovel to second meant only one out, and allowed the Astros to become only the second Dodgers opponent this season to hit double figures.

Right fielder Raul Mondesi wasn't available to avert any of this. He arrived at the park Friday afternoon complaining of a sore left foot, apparently suffered when he made a diving catch against the Astros Thursday night. A bruise was diagnosed, and Mondesi is said to be day-to-day.

Not that he likely would have stayed around long even if he'd been sound. Dodgers manager Tom Lasorda dealt this one a mercy blow after the deficit began to widen. By the eighth, he had pulled four regulars: Piazza, Karros, Delino DeShields and Blowers.

Additionally, in the face of Candiotti's aborted start - the pitcher's second-shortest of the year - Lasorda summoned Eischen and told the rest of the bullpen to take the night off. Over the previous three days, the relief staff had worked 15-1/3 innings, and badly needed a breather.

Thus, Eischen, who entered the game with just one major-league at-bat in two-plus seasons, had two in this game alone. He was sent up to the plate with a runner aboard and the Dodgers trailing 7-2 in the fourth. At that point, they probably had a more pressing need for innings than clutch hits.

The Astros were content to fatten up in the face of the Dodgers' travails.

Houston hit safely at all lineup positions except No. 9 and, with five stolen bases, hiked their National League-leading total to 87. The Astros set an early tone for all of this, batting around in the first inning and scoring four runs, as Derek Bell and Miller each drove in two against Candiotti (5-6).

With the luxury of an ample cushion, Houston starter Doug Drabek, who hadn't won in nearly a month, was able to give up nine hits through eight innings and still boost his record to 3-5.

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Photo

Photo: Eric Karros is tagged out at third by Houston's Sean Berry in the first inning.

Associated Press