DODGERS FREEZE UP : CHICAGO 9, DODGERS 4.

Byline: Tim Brown Daily News Staff Writer

No town does gloom quite as Chicago does. There are its Cubs, of course. And, then, there is its weather. At least the weather will turn.

On a Thursday afternoon when the ivy was brown and the outfield grass murky yellow, the Dodgers and Cubs played in temperatures that fell to 12 degrees with the wind chill. Dark, swirling clouds spit a steady mist that, by the third inning, turned to light snow.

The only thing worse than playing baseball in these conditions, probably, would be losing in these conditions. And losing badly. The Dodgers lost, and that's three in a row.

The Cubs defeated the Dodgers 9-4 before perhaps 1,800 rain-slickered fans, and in the process further muddied the situation at the end of the Dodgers' pitching rotation.

Pedro Astacio won the job in spring training and then found that his chief rival, Chan Ho Park, would be looking over Astacio's shoulder from the bullpen, not from Albuquerque. In his first start since last June 20, when he was dismissed to the bullpen, Astacio pitched 3-2/3 dismal innings.

In that time, he and a few of his teammates turned a 3-0 lead into a 7-3 hole. Three of the runs were unearned, thanks to a throwing error by Delino DeShields, but Astacio allowed eight hits and two walks. Among the hits was a third-inning, two-run homer by Ryne Sandberg, his first regulation-game hit since returning from an 18-month retirement and his first home run since June, 1994.

Astacio probably didn't get that big a kick out of it. Though Park pitched poorly in his first appearance Tuesday in Houston, he gave up only one hit in his second, on Wednesday. The Astacio-Park competition probably did not end in Dodgertown. Neither did it change here, where the chill gave the baseball the feel of ``a billiard ball,'' according to Mark Guthrie, one of three Dodgers pitchers who followed Astacio.

Asked whether a performance under such conditions could be considered a strike against Astacio, Dodgers manager Tom Lasorda said, ``We got a loss out of it, didn't we?''

Then, he added, ``I'm not giving Pedro a one-game chance. I'm not evaluating him on one game. I knew this was going to be the big question every time he goes out there to pitch.''

Astacio didn't linger afterward. He was gone within minutes of the game's end, making him the second consecutive Dodgers starter to refuse comment following a tepid outing.

``It was a tough day to pitch,'' pitching coach Dave Wallace said. ``But at this level, you just have to go after it. His stuff was fine. You get the ball up a little bit, that's a mistake.''

The Dodgers scored three in the third inning, two on Mike Blowers' two-out double. However, Astacio allowed a lead-off single in the bottom of the third to Cubs pitcher Kevin Foster and, two batters later, Sandberg homered to right field. In the fourth, the Cubs scored seven runs. The first five were charged to Astacio. John Cummings relieved Astacio and, in three pitches, gave up a run-scoring single to Mark Grace and a three-run homer to Sammy Sosa. It was 9-3 Cubs.

Asked about standing out in miserable weather, down six runs and with five innings to play, Dodgers outfielder Brett Butler said, ``What you do is hope (the big inning) happens to you. You both have to play under the same conditions, so there's no reason to gripe. The main thing you do is try to win the ballgame and try not to get hurt. Probably in that order.

``Let's face it, these were not baseball conditions.''

In addition to the cold and the snow, a 19-mph wind howled from over the left-field wall. Most players had never played in anything like it.

``I don't want to make any comment on that, other than I'm merely disgusted,'' said Lasorda, who apparently did not think the game should have been played.

Butler said several fans leaned over the center-field rail and called him an idiot for attempting to play. Butler laughed and yelled back, ``You're more of an idiot because you're out here watching me. I have to be out here.''

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Photo

PHOTO (color) Rey Sanchez of the Cubs wears a ski mask to w ard off the Chicago cold.

Associated Press