BASEBALL / DAILY REPORT : DODGERS : Lasorda Not Set on Bullpen Roles

Manager Tom Lasorda, when told about Todd Worrell’s comments the previous night about Lasorda’s using him as the set-up man and closer, replied that Worrell is entitled to say whatever he wants. “I have no comment on that,” Lasorda said before Thursday’s game. “When a pitcher tells me he feels good, I put him in there. When he tells me he doesn’t feel good, I don’t put him in there.”

But when Lasorda was asked if he buys into the present-day method of assigned roles in the bullpen, i.e., the set-up man preceding the closer, who pitches only one inning, Lasorda had a lot more to say.

“I don’t buy into that at all, and I never will buy it,” said Lasorda, who prefaced his comments by saying he was not referring to Worrell.

“A number of times when Ron (Perranoski, pitching coach) would report to me before each game about what each guy is capable of doing, he would say so-and-so says he can give you an inning,” Lasorda said, his temper warming. “Finally I had enough, so I had a meeting with all the pitchers and said what the hell is this one inning bit? How do you measure an inning? What if it’s only three pitches? What if it’s 14?

”. . . You go out there and you pitch. When you say you can’t pitch, then you don’t pitch.”

Worrell pitched the eighth and ninth innings Wednesday, giving up three runs in the ninth in a loss. Afterward, he questioned why Lasorda wasn’t using other relievers in the set-up role.

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Jim Gott will start Friday for the Bakersfield Dodgers on a rehabilitation assignment and is also scheduled to pitch Sunday. . . . An examination of Darren Dreifort’s right shoulder Thursday in San Antonio revealed a strain, and he was put on the seven-day disabled list. . . . The Mets lead the league with 43 hit batsmen, the most since being hit 43 times in 1968.