Lead Doesn’t Last Past Midnight

The bad news is, the Dodgers lost to the Philadelphia Phillies, 5-3, Tuesday night.

The good news is, hardly anybody knew about it.

There were only about 250 fans still in the stands at Dodger Stadium when Trenidad Hubbard struck out to end the game at 12:38 a.m.

The final editions of most newspaper were on the presses and the evening newscasts had long since aired, leaving only the overnight news operations to relay the information that the Dodgers had lost for the fourth time in five games.

For a while, it looked as if elements might help the Dodgers.

The Dodgers led, 3-2, with Philadelphia at bat in the top of the eighth inning when the rain, which fallen on and off all day at Dodger Stadium, returned in full force.

At 10:31, with the Phillies’ Rico Brogna on first after a walk and Mike Lieberthal at bat with a 1-0 count, the umpires called a halt to play.

After a delay of an hour and 31 minutes, play resumed at two minutes after midnight.

Gone was reliever Jim Bruske, who had been on the mound when the stoppage began. In his place was Scott Radinsky, who immediately got into trouble by giving up a single to Lieberthal.

In an eerily quiet setting, with only a few fans in the wet, deserted seats, the Phillies then staged a three-run rally that created plenty of noise in their own dugout.

After a sacrifice by Bob Abreu, Mark Lewis singled in a pair of runs and scored himself on a pinch-double by Kevin Jordan, all against Radinsky (1-1), who took the loss.

Wayne Gomes pitched the eighth for Philadelphia and Mark Leiter the ninth, each giving up only a harmless single.

Curt Schilling (5-3) was credited with the victory, Leiter with his seventh save.

So much for the Dodgers’ hopes of getting a save from the rain.

TONIGHT

DODGERS’ HIDEO NOMO (2-4, 4.98 ERA)

vs.

PHILLIES’ MARK PORTUGAL (1-0, 3.60 ERA)

Dodger Stadium, 7 p.m.

Radio--AM 1150, KWKW (1330)

* Update--Already struggling to gain some consistency and bounce back from off-season elbow surgery, Nomo added a new worry in his last outing: a fingernail. A broken fake nail on his throwing hand forced Nomo out of last Saturday’s game against the Florida Marlins after 2 2/3 innings. But, after being fitted with a new nail, Nomo is confident the problem has been solved.