Brennan and Howell Stop Giants, 4-2

Tom (The Flamingo) Brennan would never suggest that his life is worthy of an opera. He had enough trouble Wednesday afternoon just accepting his first National League victory, which he said should have gone to Ken Howell. Howell, after all, struck out eight batters in 3 innings in the Dodgers’ 4-2 win over the Giants in front of 19,891 fans in Candlestick Park.

But if Brennan, the only pitcher in the Dodger clubhouse currently reading “Opera Themes and Plots,” had to select an opera that best described his 10-year odyssey in baseball, it would be “La Boheme,” Puccini’s tale of penniless artists struggling to make it in the real world.

“My favorite is Wagner, though,” Brennan said. “Lots of Gypsies.”

Brennan can relate to Gypsies. At 32, he has yet to find a home in a city with a major league baseball team, although he is making it more and more difficult for the Dodgers to advise him to move along.

Brennan, who went to spring training on a minor league contract but pitched his way onto the Dodger roster, relieved Jerry Reuss with two on and none out in the fifth and the Dodgers holding a 3-1 lead. A second-inning throwing error by Giants’ pitcher Bill Laskey on a double-play ball and an obstruction call against shortstop Jose Uribe, who collided with runner Mike Scioscia, set up the first two Dodger runs, which were driven in by Dave Anderson’s single and Al Oliver’s double. Bill Russell singled home the third run in the top of the fifth.

In the bottom of the fifth, Brennan allowed one run on Chili Davis’ sacrifice fly, then struck out Jeff Leonard with the potential tying run on third.

In the sixth, Brennan got into trouble of his own when Bob Brenly nearly decapitated third baseman Pedro Guerrero with a line drive that wound up in the left-field corner. Guerrero, perhaps unhinged, then committed his second error of the day, fumbling Alex Trevino’s roller.

After Brad Wellman’s sacrifice, Brennan’s work was done as Manager Tom Lasorda summoned Howell from the bullpen to face pinch-hitter Scot Thompson.

“I brought Howell in to get a strikeout and he winds up getting eight of ‘em,” Lasorda said.

Howell struck out the side in the seventh, including Brenly with two runners on, and had two strikeouts in both the eighth and ninth innings, saving Brennan’s first win since Aug. 7, 1983, when he shut out Texas, 7-0, while pitching for the Cleveland Indians.

“It (credit for the win) was up to the scorer’s discretion and I would have given it to Kenny,” Brennan said. “He pitched great.

“That was the Kenny Howell I know. It’s a big responsibility to be a short (relief) man in the big leagues, but now that he’s got his feet wet, you’re going to see more of the same.

“He can throw the ball down the middle and challenge people. He doesn’t have to hit the corners.”

No such margin of error exists for Brennan, who survives on guile. But having pitched together for Licey in the Dominican Republic, Brennan and Howell have developed an appreciation for each other.

“He’s a fighter,” Howell said. “He’s really determined to play. When you look at his motion (the exaggerated pause on one leg), you laugh and think, ‘What the hell’s he doing?’ But did you notice he’s one of the very few pitchers in the league who falls into a fielding position after every pitch?

“And look what he’s done since he came here to the Dodgers. He battled his way up to the big club. I think that’s amazing.”

Howell said Brennan has helped him with his pitching, too.

“Before, when I wasn’t throwing real well, he told me, ‘You’re not yourself,’ ” Howell said. “And I wasn’t. I watched some films and, like Mike (Scioscia) and Steve (Yeager) kept telling me, I was throwing my head on every pitch and overthrowing, and I was out of control.”

Indeed, Howell, who issued only five unintentional walks in 51 innings last season, already had walked seven in his first nine innings this season, one reason he went into Wednesday’s game with a 0-1 record and a 4.00 earned-run average.

“He’s young and he throws hard,” Scioscia said. “With every young, hard thrower, you have to expect some erraticness. But all I know is he comes right after hitters with three good pitches.”

Scioscia said that Brennan “has to have every pitch complementing every other pitch. But every time he comes in, he’s done the job, and that’s all you can ask.”

Ask Brennan what more he could ask and he smiles.

“It’s great to be a Dodger,” he said. “They’ve made me feel like a Dodger all my life. I hope to be perfect every time I go out there, because they’ve been so great to me.

“I’m taking it one day at a time. That’s been my attitude from the beginning. I’ll keep coming to the ballpark until they tell me not to.”

Why not? The opera isn’t over until the fat manager sings.

Dodger Notes Dodger second baseman Mariano Duncan was re-examined Wednesday by Dr. Chris Myers, the Giants’ team physician, who said that Duncan should be available on a day-to-day basis. Duncan, who pulled his left hamstring during Tuesday’s game, will be examined in Los Angeles today by Dr. Frank Jobe, but Dodger Vice President Al Campanis said it doesn’t appear likely that Duncan will have to be put on the disabled list. Although it had appeared that Tom Brennan or Carlos Diaz might be sent down when Bob Bailor was activated, Manager Tom Lasorda said after Wednesday’s game that the Dodgers need to go with 11 pitchers at this time. “We have to be worried about Bob Welch,” he said. Welch has started just once since spraining a ligament in his right elbow, and the Dodgers are waiting to see how the elbow responds. Besides, Diaz (2-0, 12 strikeouts in 12 innings) and Brennan (1-0, 1.88 earned-run average) have both pitched well. If Duncan does not go onto the disabled list, the leading candidate to be sent down now appears to be first baseman Sid Bream (.114 batting average), although Campanis said Wednesday that he wants Franklin Stubbs to be playing every day at Albuquerque. Stubbs hit his fifth home run for the Dukes Tuesday night. . . . Ken Landreaux, batting .132 going into the game, had a pop-fly double and a sixth-inning home run, his third homer of the season, that accounted for the final Dodger run. Asked if he had been displeased about being benched Tuesday, Landreaux shook his head. “I wasn’t displeased at all,” he said. . . . Jerry Reuss was less happy about being removed with a 3-1 lead in the fifth, especially since the only run scored against him had been unearned. “He (Lasorda) makes the decisions, not me,” Reuss said. “It doesn’t matter what I think, because I don’t make the decision. We won the ballgame, so it seems he made the right decision. I felt I was throwing OK, throwing better.” Said catcher Mike Scioscia: “I think Jerry would be the first to tell you he’d gotten into a bad rut and wasn’t throwing the way he’s capable. He was getting the ball up.” . . . Scioscia, on shortstop Jose Uribe’s obstructing his path in the second inning: “I made sure I stepped on second, and all of a sudden it was like a downfield block.”

Dodger pitchers had a run of 31 innings without allowing an earned run until the Giants scored in the fifth. . . . Ken Howell on Brennan: “He’s funny, a good guy. We understand each other. He knows what I like and I know what he likes. He reads books. He asks me if I’ve read this or that book. Some of ‘em are out of my league. We used to play Trivial Pursuit in the Dominican, and he’d answer all those questions. He’s a really great guy, really intelligent. .