Bevacqua Delivers in 10th; Padres Beat Dodgers, 4-3

Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda, who once said he’d send a limousine to pick up Kurt Bevacqua to make sure he could have the Dodgers pitch against him, had his chance Saturday night.

The limo wasn’t needed. Bevacqua walked to the plate under his own power. But with first base open and the struggling Alan Wiggins (.091) on deck, Lasorda elected to have reliever Ken Howell pitch to pinch-hitter Bevacqua with two out in the 10th.

Bevacqua responded by lining a 1-1 pitch from Howell into right field, scoring Carmelo Martinez with the deciding run in the Padres’ 4-3 win over the Dodgers before 42,003 in chilly Jack Murphy Stadium.

The winning rally began with Tim Flannery’s one-out, bad-hop single over the head of Dodger shortstop Dave Anderson. After Martinez forced Flannery, Garry Templeton lined an 0-2 pitch into the left-field bullpen, sending Martinez to third.

Up came Bevacqua, batting for winning pitcher Goose Gossage, and in a scene straight out of the World Series, Bevacqua thrust his right fist in triumph after his game-winner.

The Padres, who tied the score in the seventh when Steve Garvey’s line drive went off the glove of Ken Landreaux for a double, scoring Tony Gwynn, had a chance to win it in regulation when Gwynn walked on four pitches and Garvey followed with a ground-ball single with two out in the ninth.

Terry Kennedy, the next batter, hit Howell’s first pitch sharply, but it went on one hop directly to second baseman Mariano Duncan, who threw out Kennedy to send the game into extra innings.

The Dodgers, who left nine men on in the first eight innings, including the bases loaded twice, hit three solo home runs off Padre starter Eric Show, who was something less than convincing in his attempt to prove that his postseason performance last October--0-2, 12.38, seven home runs in eight innings--was an aberration.

Landreaux, Mike Marshall and Sid Bream all connected off Show, who was pitching with a chipped bone in his right big toe. Show reportedly hurt the toe kicking a bat rack after being taking out of his last start, but he denies it.

Craig Lefferts, who had pitched only a third of an inning before Saturday, shut down the Dodgers with three hitless innings before Gossage took over.

With three hits in his first 31 at-bats, Landreaux (.097) was off to his worst start in five seasons with the Dodgers.

“I’ll end up hitting,” Landreaux said before the game. “I’ve been hitting too long not to.”

Landreaux said he has been seeing a lot of breaking and off-speed pitches. He also said he was trying too hard to hit the long ball, and implied that the Dodgers were putting pressure on him to do so.

“I’ve been trying to put runs on the board with one swing, that’s all,” Landreaux said. “I’m just trying to do more than enough, trying to hit the ball out of the park. Maybe that will satisfy them.”

Landreaux also took exception to criticism of his defense in center field. “I just don’t understand. I’ve always been a good defensive player. But ever since I’ve been in L.A. the media has been down on my defense.”

Landreaux conceded that not all of his critics are sitting in the pressbox. “They (media) have to be hearing that from somewhere,” he said.

“But look at my stats. Look how many balls I run down. When there’s an important play, nobody’s going to take an extra base on me.”

Landreaux wasn’t the only Dodger carrying a slump into the game. Bream, in imminent danger of returning the first-base job back to Greg Brock, was 1 for 22 until he connected off Show in the sixth, lining a 1-0 pitch off the facade above the 327-foot sign in right.

Pedro Guerrero came into the game at .195 and 2 for his last 19 until he beat out a tapper to third in the second and grounded a single to left in the fifth.

Al Oliver, down to .226 entering the game, left the game in the seventh hitless in his last 17 at-bats.

While the Dodgers were playing long ball with Show--who escaped relatively unscathed considering the Dodgers had the bases loaded in both the second and fifth but failed to score--the Padres had Dodger starter Tom Brennan in constant trouble but left seven runners on in the first five innings.

The Padres scored their first run without benefit of a hit when Wiggins walked, went to second on Brennan’s balk, took third on a sacrifice and scored on Garvey’s infield out.

In the third, Gwynn hit the first of two doubles and scored on Kennedy’s two-out bloop single to left.

Rick Honeycutt, who made just one relief appearance last season, replaced Brennan after Kevin McReynolds’ single put Padres on the corners with two out in the fifth. Padre Manager Dick Williams countered by sending Jerry Royster to bat for Graig Nettles, but Royster lined out to Landreaux in center to end the threat.

Dodger Notes With another roster decision looming Tuesday, when R.J. Reynolds comes off the disabled list, the Dodgers unveiled their latest candidate for the DL: pinch-hitter Jay Johnstone, who says he has a torn muscle in his hip. Johnstone said he suffered the injury last Wednesday in Dodger Stadium when he stepped on a sprinkler head while taking fly balls in practice. “I was trying to avoid (Terry) Whitfield when I stepped on the thing,” Johnstone said. “I can’t run.” Johnstone said blood from the muscle tear is running into the hip socket area. He said the hip also was bothering him in spring training. “There was some tenderness there; I thought it was from overexercise,” Johnstone said. “They (the Dodgers) wanted to X-ray it then.” Johnstone said he took some anti-inflammatory pills last Sunday, and went to the Scripps clinic here Friday. “Nobody’s told me that I’m going on the DL,” said Johnstone, who pinch-hit in Friday’s 11-2 loss.”. . . First baseman Greg Brock, who had two at-bats in Friday’s game, said his return to the lineup is imminent. “A couple more days of batting practice and I should be all right,” said Brock, who had been out since Opening Day with a sore right elbow. “My timing wasn’t there, but I felt comfortable.” Today’s pitchers: Dave Dravecky (0-0) vs. Orel Hershiser (1-0). It will be Dravecky’s first start of the season.