Dodgers Lose on Worst Start by Valenzuela : Baseball: He gives up five runs on six hits in only three innings. Gott adds gasoline to the fire and Reds win, 8-4.

Except for one small detail, the night contained the stuff of a championship series. A sellout crowd, close plays, disputed calls, a star hitter dragged from the field in anger.

The one missing detail was consistent, big-game pitching. The Dodgers don’t seem to have it.

Rattled performances from Fernando Valenzuela and Jim Gott led to 11 Red hits in Cincinnati’s 8-4 victory before 48,459 at Dodger Stadium.

Valenzuela, picking a poor time for his worst start of the season, lasted three innings, giving five runs on six hits.

The Dodgers had still managed to close the gap to 5-4 when Gott entered the game in the eighth inning. But he helped turn that into the final score by giving up three runs on five hits.

Tom Browning gave up four runs on four hits to earn his 13th win while Randy Myers, who has allowed one earned run in 29 career innings against the Dodgers, earned the save with 2 2/3 scoreless innings.

The Reds victory evened this weekend showdown series at one game apiece, with the Dodgers’ Ramon Martinez facing Danny Jackson in today’s finale.

Because the second-place Dodgers have fallen to 6 1/2 games behind the National League West-leading Reds with 23 games remaining, today’s game becomes one of the Dodgers’ most important of the season.

The players on both teams, however, acted as if nothing could be more important that Saturday.

When Kal Daniels was ordered off the field after a first-inning ejection, he was so angry it required five coaches and teammates to restrain him.

After Red reliever Rob Dibble was ordered off the field by his manager in the seventh inning, he was so angry he made an obscene gesture to the crowd behind the Reds dugout. Many of them put down their popcorn and hot dogs and returned the gesture.

The coolest player was the Reds’ Eric Davis, who had three doubles with two runs batted in and two runs scored. His two-run double against Valenzuela gave the Reds their first lead in the first inning, and was followed by an RBI single from Joe Oliver to make that lead 3-0.

The Dodgers responded in the bottom of the first with a run and the game’s main event--an angry Daniels fighting to reach home plate umpire Gary Darling.

The main event occurred with one out in the first inning, with Kirk Gibson on first base after drawing a one-out walk on four pitches.

Browning threw two consecutive balls to Daniels, then a strike on the outside corner. Then he threw a pitch on the inside corner that was called a strike by Darling.

Daniels backed away from the plate and began screaming at Darling.

Daniels moved nose-to-nose with Darling, and after several seconds of a heated discussion, Darling turned his back to Daniels and threw him out of the game. Daniels, who was being protectively hugged by third base coach Joe Amalfitano, grew even angrier.

He threw off Amalfitano and charged Darling. Daniels was blindsided by Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda, who made a textbook tackle, but he jumped to his feet and charged Darling again.

Mike Sharperson and Rick Dempsey, wearing his catcher’s chest protector, charged in from the dugout and double-teamed Daniels. Together, with help from Lasorda, Amalfitano and first-base coach Ben Hines, they finally dragged him down and he eventually left the field.

Mickey Hatcher, who was to replace Daniels behind home plate, singled to left two pitches later. Moments later the Dodgers were embroiled in another argument, when Eddie Murray lined a single to left to score Gibson. Murray attempted to take second base on the play, but left fielder Davis made a good throw to shortstop Mariano Duncan, who applied a tag.

Murray thought he had beaten that tag, and stood befuddled on second base for nearly a minute after the play, staring at second base umpire Frank Pulli. Lasorda finally had to run out to settle things down and encourage Murray to leave the field.

The Dodgers scored twice more in the second on a two-run triple by Juan Samuel, who was batting leadoff for the first time since May 22 and had two hits in his previous 29 at-bats. But the Reds scored two more in the third to knock out Valenzuela, who had a second consecutive poor performance.

He threw 70 pitches in those three innings, nearly half of them (34) balls, giving up five runs on six hits with three walks.

It was the shortest stint of his season, and made worse because his previously shortest outing was just five days ago, when he lasted only 3 1/3 innings against Houston.

In each of those two starts, a victory would have enabled the Dodgers to gain a game on the Reds. But in those starts, he has given 11 runs in 6 1/3 innings.

The Dodgers chipped away at the lead with a run in the seventh on a walk to Rick Dempsey, a pinch single by Chris Gwynn, a bunt by Jose Offerman, and a wild pitch by Red reliever Randy Myers.

It was in this inning that Dibble, after facing two batters in relief of Browning, left the game gesturing at the crowd in frustration.

But it was the Dodgers who ended the inning frustrated. With two out and Gwynn on third base as the tying run, Kirk struck out. Gibson has two hits in his last 25 at-bats.

Dodger Notes

The Reds skipped batting practice for one of the first times this season before a night game. . . . Tim Belcher threw for 15 minutes before the game and said he still felt no better than when he went on the disabled list because of shoulder tendinitis Aug. 17. Belcher said he might throw again today, then make a decision about arthroscopic surgery next week. . . . Jay Howell, who has converted six consecutive save opportunities, probably will have a second operation on his left knee after the season. The operation would clean up remnants of the first surgery, performed April 24. “The knee is nothing that hurts me all the time, but when I put certain pressures on it, the pain is there. And I still can’t do everything I could do before the surgery.”

A film crew from Paramount was at Dodger Stadium during the game shooting footage for the movie, “Talent For The Game,” a film about a baseball scout. . . . Jose Gonzalez was still shaken because of an alleged incident involving Los Angeles police Thursday afternoon. Gonzalez said he was driving on a downtown street on his way to a barbershop when he apparently made an illegal turn. He said he was stopped by police, then showed them his vehicle registration, insurance card and a New Mexico driver’s license. “Then all of a sudden they ordered me to get out of the car, and get my hands above my head and spread my legs,” Gonzalez said. “They were screaming at me and sticking their hand into my back. I thought if I made one move, they would shoot me. I was so scared, I couldn’t move. Everybody on the street was staring.” Gonzalez said that after a 20-minute wait, he was given a citation and released. “I was so shook up, I forgot about the haircut and went back home,” he said. “I don’t think that stuff happens in the Dominican (Republic).”