No Sigh of Relief for Dodgers, 3-2 : Baseball: L.A.’s bullpen looking worse for wear as Hartley’s wild pitch accounts for the decisive run in loss to the Astros.

HOUSTON — On Wednesday afternoon, somebody placed a replica of a dead-looking arm in the sleeve of relief pitcher Tim Crews’ warm-up jacket and hung the jacket in Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda’s office.

It was done because Crews had pitched nearly every day in the span of a week. It was done as a joke.

Hours later, nobody was laughing when another well-used Dodger reliever, Mike Hartley, threw a dead forkball for a wild pitch in the seventh inning that gave the Houston Astros the eventual winning run in their 3-2 victory before 12,310 at the Astrodome.

Hartley’s pitch, which sailed several feet wide of catcher Gary Carter’s outstretched glove, was wild enough to overshadow Darryl Strawberry’s third home run in two games and decent pitching from starter Mike Morgan.

The pitch, which allowed Rafael Ramirez to jog home from third base, also overshadowed the fact that the Dodgers had only three hits against Houston left-handers Jim Deshaies and Al Osuna.

“I squeezed the ball, I choked. . . . I’ll take blame for this loss,” said Hartley, tossing a piece of tape into his locker while staring at his shoes. “I let the team down. Nothing matters but that my job was to keep the guy on third base from scoring, and I couldn’t do it.”

Hartley is not alone in his frustration. The season is only 38 games old, and the Dodgers are in first place, but most members of the bullpen are tired.

Hartley, Crews and John Candelaria have pitched in six of the past 10 games. Jim Gott has pitched in seven of the past 10.

The bullpen has allowed runs in all but three of those games while giving up 22 walks in 31 1/3 innings. They have a 3.16 earned-run average during that time, which is fine for a starter but barely average for a reliever.

Lasorda was confronted Monday by starter Kevin Gross after he was taken out of the game in the fifth inning. But Lasorda has not otherwise been openly accused of going to his bullpen too early. Perhaps that is because starting pitchers have gone at least six innings during seven of those 10 games.

As the bullpen continues to struggle, it has taken two or three relievers to do the job of one.

“But the thing was, for some reason tonight, my arm felt fine , as good as it has felt all year,” insisted Hartley, who threw his fifth wild pitch of the season, two more than he threw in 1990. “But I have just been going bad. I haven’t done the job in three weeks.”

With seven games against the defending World Series champion Cincinnati Reds coming up in the next 11 days, the state of the bullpen is becoming a serious matter.

Before Wednesday’s game, pitching coach Ron Perranoski gave the relief pitchers a pep talk in center field.

“He just talked to us about back when he pitched in the bullpen, and how sometimes he would get tired from pitching every day,” said Gott, who walked all three batters he faced in Tuesday’s 7-3 victory in which three other relievers were used. “Perry was saying that the important thing was not to let the other team know that we felt tired.”

Hartley entered the game with two out in the seventh inning and the Dodgers trailing, 2-1.

Ramirez had led off with a double, moved to third on a grounder by Casey Candaele, and stayed there even though Carter claimed he fairly tagged Ramirez at home plate on a suicide squeeze bunt by Ken Oberkfell.

Umpire Charlie Reliord said the ball was bunted foul, and Oberkfell then struck out against Candelaria, bringing up pinch-hitter Mark Davidson and bringing in Hartley.

Four pitches later, Hartley’s forkball was bouncing against the backstop and the Astros led, 3-1. This proved to be an important margin when the Dodgers scored in the eighth inning on a double by Juan Samuel.

Strawberry, who had hit a home run in the fourth inning (the third in his last five at-bats), then struck out against reliever Osuna. Eddie Murray grounded to third base to end the inning.

“He doesn’t have anything I can’t hit,” Strawberry said of Osuna, whom he said he was facing for the first time.

If only the Dodgers could get used to hitting left-handers, against whom they have a 5-10 record.

Deshaies, who entered the game with a 1-4 record and 7.14 ERA, allowed only two hits in his seven innings. He has a 10-3 career record and 2.89 ERA against the Dodgers.