Guerrero and Anderson Are Giant Killers

This city, which by now should be accustomed to shock waves and losing baseball teams, received massive doses of both Monday night.

One out away from celebrating a one-hit shutout of the hated Dodgers by Giants pitcher Dave LaPoint, the 24,512 patrons of Candlestick Park instead were forced to endure the horror of watching Pedro Guerrero hit a game-tying, two-run home run in the top of the ninth.

But the collapse was not completed until an inning later, when struggling shortstop Dave Anderson--his confidence at its nadir before the game, when he met with Manager Tom Lasorda behind closed doors--hit his first home run of the season to give the Dodgers a 3-2 win in 10 innings.

The Giants, meanwhile, were losing their seventh in a row, with Dodger reliever Tom Niedenfuer striking out Dan Gladden to end the game for his first win.

“It’s going to be hard enough to get up at 7 in the morning,” said a despondent LaPoint, thinking about this afternoon’s noon start, “especially after drinking about 12 beers when I go home.”

Guerrero, who had hit just one home run in a typically slow April for him, said he called his shot, a stunning act of bravado inasmuch as the Dodgers’ offense to that point had consisted of Mike Marshall’s line single to left to start the seventh.

“I called it,” Guerrero insisted. “I told the guys on the bench that all I needed was one guy on base.”

Guerrero got his wish when LaPoint walked Marshall on five pitches. He then unloaded on LaPoint’s next pitch.

“It was a cut fastball that backed up over the plate,” LaPoint said. “I tried to get it inside. The pitch was designed for either a 300-foot foul ball or to break his bat and get an easy out.”

The only thing that pitch broke was LaPoint’s heart, although it was Anderson--who came into the game batting .200 with no home runs and no RBIs--who applied the crusher.

No one suggested that Anderson had called his shot.

“The last thing in my mind was a home run,” said Anderson, who lined another LaPoint fastball over the left-field fence.

“I went up there like the famous Mark Bradley, who said, ‘I’m just looking to make contact.’ ”

Bradley was a minor league teammate who, as Anderson explained it, put some soul in one of baseball’s time-honored cliches after striking out three times in a row against Dennis Rasmussen, now with the Yankees.

It was an error by Anderson in the third inning that had led to two unearned runs for the Giants, who were on the verge of slaying Giant-killer Bob Welch, who was 13-2 lifetime against the Giants, 5-0 in Candlestick.

“I really wasn’t that down about the error, it was a tough play,” said Anderson, who fell to his knees trying to smother LaPoint’s sinking line drive in the third but couldn’t come up with the ball.

“He hit a line drive that kind of tails on you. I was going to dive for the ball, but it was right on me.”

After an infield hit by Dan Gladden and a walk to Joel Youngblood loaded the bases, Chili Davis hit a fastball off his fists over the head of second baseman Mariano Duncan into short right field for a single that gave the Giants a 2-0 lead, a rare occurrence for a team that came into the game with a sorry .201 team batting average.

Welch, pitching for the first time this season after spraining a ligament in his right elbow at the end of spring training, gave the Giants no more in his five innings, stranding Bob Brenly after his one-out triple in the fourth by striking out David Green, a pathetic 1 for 28 this season.

But LaPoint, who came with Green to the Giants in a trade for the Cardinals, was untouchable until a friend--Guerrero--betrayed him in the ninth.

“Let me tell you something, we are friends,” Guerrero said. “He and I played winter ball together. Sometimes, especially with guys like him, he’s a nice guy, sometimes you feel sorry. But what can you do about it?

“When you see a guy throwing a ballgame like that, especially me, I want to go out there and hit the ball.”

That he did. “I’m surprised he was looking for that pitch,” said LaPoint, now 0-3 despite a 2.01 ERA. “But you just have to forget about it.”

Anderson won’t soon forget his hit. The last time he hit a game-winning homer in the 10th, he said, was in Edmonton in 1982. In that game, too, Niedenfuer was the winner.

“My confidence at the plate has just been terrible,” he said. “Hopefully, this will pick me up. I’ll be more aggressive and come up swinging.”

Dodger Notes

As expected, Jay Johnstone was placed on the 21-day disabled list effective today, thus becoming the sixth Dodger to go on the DL this season. His place on the roster was taken by R.J. Reynolds, activated after spending 15 days on the DL with a pulled left hamstring. Johnstone’s reaction to the news? “Total shock and surprise,” he said, deadpan. Johnstone’s injury was diagnosed as a strained hip muscle by Dr. Paul Hirshman, who examined him in San Diego last Friday. “I’m glad it was another team’s doctor (the Padres’) so you can’t question the injury,” Dodger Vice President Al Campanis said. Johnstone said he’s legitimately hurt. “Very seldom do I cry wolf,” Johnstone said. “But when I couldn’t hit, I became worried.” . . . Bob Bailor is due to come off the DL Thursday, which probably means some anxious moments for pitchers Carlos Diaz and Tom Brennan. With 11 pitchers on the roster, Diaz or Brennan figure to go to Albuquerque.

With left-hander Dave LaPoint pitching, outfielders Al Oliver and Ken Landreaux sat for the second straight game. Oliver (0 for his last 19, .189), said he’s not concerned about his slump, which continued Monday when he grounded weakly to second pinch-hitting for Bob Welch in the fifth. “I’ve hit the ball pretty good,” Oliver said. “It’s part of the game and I accept it. I’ve never been in a situation where I haven’t hit the ball well, where I’ve gone 0 for 10 and no balls were hit hard. Then I’d be worried.” Oliver was booed loudly here, where he played 91 games last season for the Giants. . . . Phony front page hanging in Bill Russell’s cubicle here had this banner headline: “Basgall ‘Canned,’ Russell Named Coach.” Manager Tom Lasorda was behind the prank. Cracked Mike Scioscia: “They had another one, too. ‘Russell Canned, Basgall Named New Infielder.’ ”

Jeff Leonard, originally in the Giants’ lineup, was a last-minute scratch after becoming the latest big-leaguer to testify in Pittsburgh before a federal grand jury investigating drug trafficking. . . . Leonard, who was involved in a batting cage scuffle last Friday with teammate Dan Gladden, resigned his captaincy the next day, but asked for it back on Sunday, when he apologized to Gladden. “When I analyzed my decision, it defined a quitter, a guy giving up on himself,” Leonard told David Bush of the San Francisco Chronicle. “I’m not a quitter. That decision wasn’t me and it never will be.”