Dodgers’ 4-0 Victory Is a Historic One, Sort Of

Somebody call the Smithsonian.

While Jerry Reuss was throwing his first shutout since Oct. 1, 1982, Greg Brock hit a three-run home run Wednesday night in the Dodgers’ 4-0 win over the Montreal Expos before 19,239 fans at Olympic Stadium.

The last Dodger three-run home run is not as old as that 225-million-year-old dinosaur they just found in Arizona, it only seems that way.

“I know what you’re going to ask me,” said a near-giddy Manager Tom Lasorda, trying to digest the reality of the Dodgers’ first three-run homer of the season along with his plate of fried chicken.

“It’s extinct, like the bald eagle. I can’t remember the last one. I asked Fernando, and he didn’t know, either.

“Maybe they come in bunches, like apples.”

Bunches of . . . apples?

“Oh, yeah,” Lasorda said. “That’s bananas.”

Other Dodger fossil hunters more sure of their facts than Valenzuela announced that Brock’s three-run job was the team’s first since Sept. 24, 1984, when Pedro Guerrero hit one off Houston’s Mike LaCoss.

“Last year? Damn,” Guerrero said. “I tell you, that (Brock’s home run) was great.”

Reuss, meanwhile, has wondered at times whether his creaking elbow and battered heels had him on the verge of extinction. But Wednesday night, he looked like anything but a 35-year-old relic in running his record to a stunning 20-5 against the Expos.

Montreal had just two infield hits, and Reuss had set down the last 14 batters in a row when Tim Raines and Vance Law lined consecutive singles with one out in the ninth. Pitching coach Ron Perranoski then paid a visit to the mound, but Reuss closed out his shutout by retiring Andre Dawson on a pop fly to Mariano Duncan in short right and Hubie Brooks on a bouncer to Guerrero at third.

“Last year, I was hurting,” said Reuss, who was 5-7 last season after undergoing surgery on his left elbow, “and there were times I wondered how bad I was hurting. There were a lot of pitches in my arm, a lot of years.

“You know you should be making a contribution to the team, and you’re not, and you’re wondering if you’re going to get better. You start developing a train of thought that you won’t.

“Then last fall, I had two operations to remove bone spurs from my heels, and I didn’t know whether I’d be able to run comfortably, or run at all.

“So it’s a pleasure, not only to pitch without pain but to walk without pain.”

And for a change, a Dodger pitcher could derive pleasure from the way the team played behind him.

“I was pleased on a couple of different levels,” Reuss said. “We did a couple of things tonight we haven’t done.

“Brock hit the home run, and he also made a very good defensive play. We played errorless ball, and Ken Landreaux did something twice that won’t show up in the box score, moving the runner over from second.

“That’s fundamental baseball, heads-up baseball.”

If Reuss was seeking a reminder of his own mortality, he needed only to look in the Expos’ clubhouse. Just two days before, Steve Rogers, the best pitcher in Montreal history, had been given his unconditional release.

Like Reuss, Rogers is 35, and he is the only Montreal pitcher in the last six seasons to beat Reuss. That was in the 1981 playoffs, for which Rogers will forever be remembered as the man who gave up Rick Monday’s pennant-winning home run.

“I pitched against him in high school and in American Legion ball,” Reuss said. “I’ve known him for 20 years. When he was at the University of Tulsa, I was in Tulsa with the Cardinals’ organization.

“But you look at that (Rogers’ release) and you look at that uniform number he wore, and you say that somebody wore that uniform before he got there, and somebody will wear it after. Sooner or later, the time will come to give it up.

“I’ve seen an extreme case like Garvey’s. Sometimes it must run through his mind: How many years (with the Dodgers)? Twelve, Thirteen? And how quickly it went.”

For now, though, it’s still there for Reuss.

“In some ways it’s been short,” he said, “and in other ways I’ve put a lot of years in. It depends on my point of reference.”

On the night of a shutout, it must feel forever young.

Dodger Notes Montreal starter David Palmer walked Pedro Guerrero intentionally to get to Mike Marshall and Greg Brock in the sixth. He struck out Marshall, but Brock lined a 2-1 fastball over the left-field fence. “I was thinking base hit,” said Brock, who had lined out on a 3-and-0 pitch with two on in the first inning. “Before in the same situation, I had hit the ball hard, but that doesn’t make up for it (the out). I feel like I’ve been hitting the ball real well the last couple of weeks, but it’s been bad luck right now.” Brock, incidentally, said his elbows are “all right. That’s all I’m going to say about them.” . . . R.J. Reynolds, moved up to the No. 2 spot in the order, figured in both Dodger rallies. He doubled home Mariano Duncan in the first and singled and stole second ahead of Brock’s home run in the sixth. . . . Brock now is tied with Sid Bream in home runs (3) and moved two ahead of Bream in RBIs, 8 to 6. . . . Dodger Vice-President Al Campanis remained in Florida Wednesday, traveling to Daytona with the Class A Vero Beach Dodgers. Bob Welch is scheduled to throw on the side there Thursday, and Campanis wants to see how Welch’s right elbow responds to his three-inning stint Tuesday. . . . Jerry Reuss’ last previous complete game was Sept. 19 at Houston, when he beat the Astros, 3-1. . . . Steve Sax, 4 for his last 41 (.098), was benched Wednesday, with Duncan moving over to second and Bob Bailor starting at shortstop. Manager Tom Lasorda said he sat Sax down because Sax’s ankle is bothering him. Sax has said his ankle feels fine. . . . Bailor hadn’t started since April 30, and this was his first start at short. “Yeah, I was kind of surprised,” said Bailor, whose playing time shrank considerably when the Dodgers signed Mike Ramsey. Someone will have to go when Dave Anderson returns. “It’s out of my hands,” Bailor said. “There’s nothing I can do, so I’ll go about my business like I’m going to be here for the next 10 years.” Bailor, asked if the Dodgers might be annoyed at him because of the controversy over his going on the disabled list with a shoulder that stopped hurting a couple of days later, said: “I hope not. I forgot about it. Let’s hope somebody else did.” . . . Marshall went 0 for Montreal (0 for 11, 5 strikeouts, 3 on Wednesday). . . . Lasorda, noting that a number of National League teams aren’t hitting: “The last time I looked, our average was higher than the the Cubs’ (It isn’t anymore; the Dodgers are batting .229, the Cubs .230). The difference is, they’re catching the ball.”