Dodgers Win When Hitters Do Their Job

Despite whatever whimsical and motivational qualities Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda’s two-day gig as a third-base coach provides, it obviously does not account for his team’s sudden resurgence over the weekend.

No, the Dodgers have won two straight games, including a 7-6 come-from-behind win over the Chicago Cubs Sunday afternoon before 40,523 fans at Dodger Stadium, for the most elementary reasons.

For the second straight game, they received good relief pitching, this time from Matt Young and Brian Holton, and unexpectedly good hitting from several Dodgers to overcome another poor pitching performance from starter Fernando Valenzuela, who couldn’t make it out of the sixth inning.

“We battled back,” said Lasorda, who indicated he will continue to coach third base until the Dodgers lose or he loses his voice. “That’s a good sign.”

If the Dodgers (43-55) had been able to put together good pitching and good hitting more often this season, they might not be in such poor shape. Nonetheless, Sunday’s win vaulted the Dodgers into a fourth-place tie with the Atlanta Braves in the National League West, 8 1/2 games behind Cincinnati.

Valenzuela, who had his second straight bad outing, worked 5 innings and gave up 6 runs on 9 hits. But the Dodger offense would not let this one get away.

The Dodgers trailed, 4-0, in the third inning, but eventually turned it into a 5-4 lead. Then, the Dodgers trailed again, 6-5, in the top of the sixth before Valenzuela left and they scored two runs in the bottom of the inning to forge to a 7-6 lead.

The big offensive blows for the Dodgers were struck by Pedro Guerrero, who hit a two-run home run in the third, and a two-run double by Steve Sax in the sixth that gave them the 7-6 lead.

After Holton bailed out Valenzuela in the sixth, giving up only an infield single to Andre Dawson that scored one run, it was up to Young to protect the one-run lead. Young pitched impressively during his three-inning stint to earn his eighth save, his first since July 5.

The only Cub hits against Young were Keith Moreland’s single leading off the seventh inning and Bob Dernier’s infield single in the eighth.

Young, who really hasn’t been the same since straining a ligament in his left elbow in Cincinnati on June 7, did his best work Sunday in the ninth inning. After falling behind Dawson, 3 and 0, to lead off the inning, Young proceeded to strike him out on a 3-and-2 pitch with a forkball.

That normally is not Young’s most reliable pitch, but he said he has been forced to use it more since his hard slider has been adversely affected by his elbow problem.

“I’ve been working on (the forkball), because my slider hasn’t been the same in about a month and a half,” Young said. “I’m able to throw the slider, but not like before.”

At least on Sunday, Young was able to pass off his forkball as a slider. It certainly fooled Dawson, who earlier had belted a two-run home run off Valenzuela and had the run-scoring infield hit against Holton.

“I really didn’t think he’d come right after me (after three straight balls), but he has that good sinker,” Dawson said.

Informed it was a forkball, not a slider, that Young used in the ninth, Dawson shrugged and compared Young’s split-finger pitch to that of Houston’s Mike Scott, the leading practitioner of the pitch.

“Scott doesn’t throw that pitch that hard,” Dawson said. “If (Young) can get that pitch over for a strike at that speed, you got to give it to him.”

Said Young: “I’ve been frustrated because I haven’t had all my pitches. It’s like going to battle without all you’re weapons. That’s a pretty good analogy, isn’t it?”

It also might serve as an analogy for the Dodger offense, which is last in the league in batting average and runs scored. In the three-game Cub series, though, the Dodgers scored 18 runs, which is an unqualified bonanza for them.

Tops on Sunday’s hit list were:

--Sax, who doubled down the left-field line off reliever Scott Sanderson in the sixth, scoring Tito Landrum and Ken Landreaux to give the Dodgers the lead for good. Sax had scored two runs himself earlier after reaching base on fielder’s choices.

--Guerrero, whose two-run home run to left off Moyer in the third, brought the Dodgers back from a 4-1 deficit to make it, 4-3.

--Mike Scioscia, who doubled and scored the Dodgers’ first run in the third and started the Dodgers’ sixth-inning rally with a leadoff single.

Scioscia was eventually out in a rundown between home and third base, which touched off a tirade by Lasorda when the play was mentioned by a reporter afterward.

With one out, the Dodgers had Scioscia on third and Landrum on first and Landreaux at the plate. Landreaux hit a one-hopper to first base that Manny Trillo backhanded.

Lasorda sent Scioscia from third, thinking that Trillo would try for the double play. But Trillo threw home, catching Scioscia in a rundown. The play turned out to be of little consequence, since Sax followed with the double to left to score both runners.

Still, when a reporter half-jokingly questioned him on the play, Lasorda exploded. Once he calmed down, he then warned reporters not to put his expletives in the newspapers.

Lasorda, sans profanity, screamed: “You’re right, I sent him home. If you don’t know anything about the game, you better study it. There’s a guy (Landreaux) who hit the ball with runners on first and third. Where is the play supposed to be?”

Reporter: “Second base, most of the time.”

Lasorda: “Now, if he throws to second and that guy stays at third, you know how (bad) that looks. Now, if I send him home and he’s out, at least we still got another at-bat. Now, if the batter hits a slow ball to the infield, it’s a different thing, but he hit a shot.

“You guys just got to learn the game. I was waiting for some (reporter) to ask me that question. I’ll do the same thing 100 more times.”

That’s presuming Lasorda plans to remain in his multiple role as a manager, third base coach and media critic.

Dodger Notes

After Sunday’s game, the Dodgers placed pitcher Alejandro Pena on the 15-day disabled list and recalled pitcher Tim Crews from Albuquerque. Crews, a right-hander, had a 7-2 record with a 3.63 earned-run average and 12 saves for Albuquerque. Pena suffered a recurrence of a strained abdominal muscle when he posted his second save on Saturday. Brad Wellman, recalled from Albuquerque Saturday to replace demoted Mariano Duncan, made his Dodger debut Sunday. Wellman replaced Dave Anderson at shortstop in the seventh inning and popped up in his only at-bat.