Dodgers Shut Out Padres on Hershiser’s Two-Hitter

If he had to be reminded again of his own mortality, Orel Hershiser was grateful that at least this time it was by Tony Gwynn and not Nick Esasky.

“If someone is going to ruin your no-hitter, it might as well be the batting champion,” said Hershiser, who didn’t allow the Padres so much as a ball out of the infield Sunday until Gwynn opened the seventh by lining a 2-1 curveball into the left-field corner for an opposite-field double.

That was the Padres’ first hit of the afternoon. A bunt single by Carmelo Martinez with one out in the eighth was the other. The Dodgers only had six hits off Padre starter Dave Dravecky, but two of those were home runs, by Candy Maldonado and Mariano Duncan, the difference in a 2-0 win that gave the Dodgers a split of the four-game series before a crowd of 42,574 at Jack Murphy Stadium.

For the fourth time in his 23 big-league starts, Hershiser had pitched a two-hitter, and was left to contemplate what might have been, just as he had on that Sunday afternoon last July against the Reds, when Esasky--a .193 hitter last season--broke up a perfect game by lining a 3-and-0 pitch for a single with two out in the eighth.

“I was thinking, don’t let Gwynn hit a lame duck, which is what I did with Esasky,” Hershiser said. “How many times do you get this far? I didn’t want to give him a gift pitch and then feel bad about it afterward.”

Hershiser said he was satisfied with the pitch he threw Gwynn. “It wasn’t hit hard, but he hit it in the right place,” Hershiser said. “It deserved to be a hit.”

Before the Padres came to bat that inning, catcher Steve Yeager said Hershiser told him he planned to throw Gwynn a breaking pitch outside and in the dirt.

“It wasn’t one of his better curves,” Yeager said. “It broke, but it didn’t have that sharp quickness. And Gwynn’s a great hitter.”

While last year’s game against the Reds was the closest Hershiser came to perfection, it won’t be the last, according to Dodger catcher Mike Scioscia, who caught Hershiser in the ninth Sunday.

“You know some pitchers are always going to give up hits,” Scioscia said, “but Orel is one of those pitchers--like Nolan Ryan, Fernando (Valenzuela), (Dwight) Gooden--who has the possibility of a no-hitter every time he goes out there.

“Orel doesn’t throw quite as hard as a Ryan or Gooden, but he’s got great movement on his fastball and an outstanding curve and sinker.”

Hershiser retired the first 14 Padres in order until he walked Graig Nettles on a 3-2 pitch with two out in the fifth. In his previous appearance, which came in relief against Houston, Hershiser set down nine Astros in a row without letting the ball out of the infield.

Besides Gwynn’s hit, the only other ball a Dodger outfielder was required to handle was Terry Kennedy’s line drive to Maldonado in center field that ended the game.

“That ball gets eaten alive in center field,” Hershiser said of Kennedy’s bid for a hit, which came with Gwynn on base after an error by shortstop Bill Russell. “You’ve got to crush it to center, and I knew he didn’t hit it that well.”

Hershiser, who had been bothered by a stiff back in his first two starts, said the back stiffened up again on him in the eighth. The fact that he did not have to throw that many pitches helped, though.

Hershiser, who struck out eight--including Steve Garvey three times--threw only 103 pitches, according to the count kept by pitching coach Ron Perranoski. He threw only 32 pitches in the first four innings--an average of eight an inning--before he threw 22 in the fifth, when he walked Nettles and fell behind two other hitters.

It was in the fifth, Perranoski said, that Hershiser became conscious of the no-hit possibilities, and it showed.

“He looked at the (score) board and knew he had a no-hitter going, and I think he was a little intimidated by it,” Perranoski said. “He was trying to make the perfect pitch.”

Hershiser said that after second baseman Duncan’s leaping backhand catch of Kevin McReynolds’ liner in the fifth, he had the no-hitter on his mind.

“I talked about it with Perry after I walked Nettles,” Hershiser said. “He told me, ‘Think about pitching a shutout, don’t think about anything else,’ and then he gave me a funny look.

“I said to him, ‘Yeah, I’m thinking about pitching a no-hitter,’ and he said, ‘I could tell.’ ”

Once Gwynn got on, however, Hershiser’s thoughts turned more practical: Namely, protecting a 1-0 lead, just as he had had to against the Reds.

“I had to take a little blow (after the hit),” said Hershiser, whose only outward reaction was to take his cap off, run his hand through his hair, and put the cap back on again.

“But then I thought, ‘Oh, oh, deja vu, another 1-0 game and a man on second. Time to get back to pitching.’ ”

Garvey’s tapper to short moved Gwynn to third, but Hershiser needed just two more pitches to get out of the inning. With the infield in, Kennedy grounded sharply to Duncan at second, and McReynolds’ grounder down the third-base line was backhanded nicely by Guerrero, who threw him out with plenty to spare.

“His sinker looks like a split-fingered fastball, but it’s thrown a lot harder,” Gwynn said of Hershiser. “We just couldn’t figure him out.”

Dravecky, who was making his first start this season, has been a mystery at times to the Dodgers, too. In one of history’s little twists, the night after Hershiser was almost perfect against the Reds, Dravecky pitched a one-hitter against the Dodgers, with Russell’s seventh-inning double the spoiler.

Dravecky took a three-hit shutout into the seventh, when Maldonado unloaded on a 3-1 fastball for his second home run of the season. His first, a week ago Saturday against the Giants, also broke up a 0-0 game.

“In these type of games, I don’t try to be the big hero,” said Maldonado, a platoon player still trying to break into the regular lineup in the spot now occupied by Ken Landreaux.

And no one expected Duncan to be a home-run hitter, either. But in the eighth, he lined Dravecky’s first pitch into the seats in left.

“Don’t say that, I’m no home-run hitter,” said Duncan, who also had a broken-bat single in the first and a bunt single in the sixth.

“The pitcher threw me a fastball in, not only to me, but to everybody. Pedro Guerrero and Manny Mota, they told me to look for that pitch, and I was ready for it.”

According to Guerrero, who with his wife, Denise, has taken in Duncan as a house guest, the rookie may be ready to stay in the big leagues.

“I think he can play,” Guerrero said. “A lot of people say sometimes when a young guy his age comes up to the big leagues, he’s not ready. But if he’s playing every day, and learning the things he has to learn--hey, it’s the same baseball, and if he’s doing the job, fine.

“Right now, I feel he’s helping the team. What’s going to happen? I don’t know. But I like the way he’s playing.”

It goes without saying how the Dodgers view the way Hershiser is pitching.

“When he’s on, and has command of two or three pitches, he’s awesome,” Perranoski said.

And someday, he just might be perfect.

Dodger Notes

Besides his near no-hitter, Orel Hershiser stole third base in the ninth inning for the first stolen base of his big-league career. Hershiser broke for third before Padre reliever Greg Booker released the ball and made it without drawing a throw. “I saw (Jerry) Royster with his head down about 30 feet away from the bag, and it’s so loud here, I knew that even if he yelled, Booker might not hear him,” Hershiser said. Royster, who came into the game as a pinch-runner for Graig Nettles in the eighth, also was picked off by Hershiser. “I caught him between steps,” Hershiser said. . . . Dodger catcher Mike Scioscia was struck in the elbow by a throw by Padre first baseman Steve Garvey, attempting to retire Scioscia at second to complete a double play. “But that wasn’t what ticked me off,” Scioscia said. “As I slid, my chin scraped over the base and plowed a trough in the ground. And I bit my tongue, too.” . . . With left-hander Dave Dravecky pitching for the Padres, both Al Oliver and Ken Landreaux were out of the Dodger lineup. Oliver, hitless in his last 18 at-bats, is down to a .194 batting average after grounding out as a pinch-hitter in the ninth. Landreaux, whose failure to catch Garvey’s line drive the night before allowed the Padres to score the tying run, was sent into left field as a defensive replacement in the ninth, with Bill Russell moving from left field to shortstop. Russell was charged with an error on the only ball to come his way, Tony Gwynn’s slow roller; Landreaux had no chances. “I wanted to let Kenny know that what happened yesterday is gone,” said Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda. . . . Of the Dodgers’ league-leading 13 home runs, 11 have come with the bases empty. . . . Postscript on Lasorda’s decision to have Ken Howell pitch to Kurt Bevacqua in the 10th inning of Saturday’s 4-3 Padre win: In the last five seasons, Bevacqua was batting .175 against right-handed pitchers. Garvey on Bevacqua: “Obviously, Kurt is one of the best pinch-hitters in the game; he’s proven that. And because of the rivalry, he wants to hit in that situation.” Asked if he would have walked Bevacqua with first base open, Garvey said: “I’m just an observer, but I thought Tommy might.” . . . The Padres set a four-game attendance record, drawing 155,521 in the series against the Dodgers. . . . Dodger Vice President Al Campanis, asked if he would consider moving Steve Sax to the outfield: “There’s an old saying in the Dodger organization: You can play an athlete anywhere. But if you’re asking me if we’re going to do this, I’ll tell you: I don’t know.” On Sid Bream, Campanis said: “I think he’s done well. He’s hitting home runs, he just has to hit a little more consistently.” On who will play first, Greg Brock or Bream, Campanis said: “We should have one (first baseman). We need another outfielder more than we need two first basemen. It depends. I don’t think we can make that evaluation right now. Everything’s so comparable. Sid has three home runs, he’s tied with (Mike) Marshall. He went 8 for 10 in the Freeway Series; suppose he has another hot spurt?” . . . When someone mentioned that both Bream and Brock said they could play in the outfield, Campanis said: “Have you told the manager?”