It’s a Dodger Steal That Tops Cardinals at Own Game, 5-2

The St. Louis Cardinals arrived here with the fastest group of sprinters since Carl Lewis anchored the U.S. relay team in the Olympics.

Not surprisingly, Wednesday’s game was decided by a stolen base. But it didn’t come from the fleet feet of Cardinal rookie sensation Vince Coleman, or Lonnie Smith or the Cardinals’ $2-million shortstop, Ozzie Smith.

The thief of the night was the Dodgers’ $40,000 shortstop, rookie Mariano Duncan, who stole second in the sixth and scored on an RBI single by the Dodgers’ newest No. 3 hitter, Bill Russell, the go-ahead run in the Dodgers’ 5-2 win before 33,748 in Dodger Stadium.

That run was unearned, as Duncan reached on an error by Cardinal second baseman Tommy Herr. The Dodgers added two more runs in the eighth on Herr’s second error and Mike Marshall’s two-run single.

But the Cardinals were slowed to a crawl by Rick Honeycutt and Steve Yeager for seven innings, then were forced to become puddle-jumpers when a rare rain delay caused play to be stopped for 50 minutes.

It took nearly that long for the Dodger Stadium grounds crew to roll the tarpaulin on and off the field. With their lack of practice, it’s little wonder: The last rainout in Dodger Stadium was on Aug. 18, 1983.

Six weeks into the 1985 season, major league baseball has yet to have a game rained out. One national magazine called that Commissioner Peter Ueberroth’s most impressive achievement to date.

Honeycutt, whose last appearance resulted in the Dodgers’ worst loss in almost two decades, 16-2 to the Pirates, spotted the Cardinals a 2-0 lead in the first. Jack Clark broke an 0-for-13 slump when he lined his fifth home run into the left-field seats with Tommy Herr aboard.

But Honeycutt allowed only four hits thereafter, all singles, and escaped further damage in the third inning when Cardinal left-fielder Lonnie Smith slipped rounding third.

The Cardinals, who came into the game with 53 steals and on a pace to break the all-time record of 347 set by the 1911 New York Giants, tested Yeager in the fifth and flunked.

Rookie Vince Coleman, who entered the game with 20 steals in 18 games, opened the inning with a single. Honeycutt threw over to first six times, and nearly picked off Coleman once. With the count 2-and-1 to Lonnie Smith, the Dodgers then pitched out, and Yeager nailed Coleman at second, only the fifth time the rookie has been caught this season. Pittsburgh’s Tony Pena threw him out three times.

Yeager has thrown out seven of nine runners attempting to steal.

Russell, playing left field with a left-hander, John Tudor, pitching for the Cardinals, doubled leading off the fourth and scored on Mike Marshall’s moon shot that would have carried 500 feet if he hadn’t hit it straight up. As it was, Marshall’s fly carried almost to the left-field wall.

In the sixth, on the next pitch after Duncan’s steal, Russell lined a single up the middle to put the Dodgers ahead. That gave Russell half of the Dodgers’ four hits against Tudor.

R.J. Reynolds doubled in Pedro Guerrero with the Dodgers’ first run in the second.