Oliver Shows He’s Nothing to Sneeze at as Dodgers Win, 3-2

Goose Gossage may have been crippled by a sneeze, but the Dodgers weren’t about to offer a box of tissue to the San Diego Padres, who lost, 3-2, Tuesday night without their relief ace in front of a crowd of 37,057 at Jack Murphy Stadium.

A two-out pinch single by Bill Russell in the eighth inning off Craig Lefferts tied the score, 2-2, and a bases-loaded sacrifice fly by Al Oliver off Tim Stoddard in the ninth won it. That ended the Padres’ four-game winning streak and brought the second-place Dodgers within four games of the lead in the National League West.

Gossage has been sidelined since Saturday with back spasms he suffered after a particularly violent sneeze.

Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda said he wasn’t aware of Gossage’s absence from the Padre bullpen.

“What’s wrong with him?” Lasorda asked. “I didn’t know that. I don’t know who’s available until I see them get up and go into the game.”

Oliver had made only two plate appearances since coming off the disabled list June 7, but that didn’t keep Lasorda from sending the one-time starting left fielder to bat for R.J. Reynolds, who had gone 2 for 4 to that point.

“I’ve seen him written in the papers as the forgotten man,” Lasorda said of Oliver. “I don’t know why you call him that. He’s not the forgotten man for me.

“It’s like in poker. When you have a wild card, you use him any time you want. And what better situation than that?”

Oliver fell behind 1-and-2 in the count to Stoddard, then was jammed by a pitch that he fouled into the third base box seats, striking a middle-aged woman in the head. (The woman walked from the stands as she was escorted for first aid.) Oliver then worked Stoddard to a full count before lining a drive to left-center that carried far enough for Ken Landreaux to score the winning run.

While Lasorda says he hasn’t forgotten Oliver, the 38-year-old with the .300 career average sees the time drawing close where he should forget baseball.

“My wife (Donna) wants me to retire,” he said. “I’ve pretty much prepared myself (to do so). She feels I don’t deserve what’s going on. . . . “Being the situation that it is, I took it upon myself to stay in shape and be ready when called upon. It’s not easy for me, not when you’ve played every day for the last 20 years.

“But it was gratifying to come through in that situation.”

It’s a situation, of course, where normally the Dodgers would have faced Gossage, who is second in the league with 16 saves, five behind Jeff Reardon of Montreal.

But after Padre starter Andy Hawkins signaled to Manager Dick Williams that he was tired at the start of the eighth, Williams went to Lefferts, who gave up a single to Reynolds. Mike Scioscia sacrificed, and, after Dave Anderson grounded out, pinch-hitter Russell looped a screwball off the end of his bat into short center field for a single that scored Reynolds.

“He (Goosage) would have been in that situation but he wasn’t,” Russell said, “and we got the big hits when we needed them.

“I put the ball in play, and Oliver was going to make contact, too.

Stoddard, who earned his first save Saturday, loaded the bases in the ninth on singles by Landreaux, Pedro Guerrero and Greg Brock before Oliver delivered.

“I don’t care about that,” said Guerrero, the slugger-turned-singles-hitter with three base hits, when asked about Gossage’s absence.

“He’s probably the best in the league, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to be scared of him. You think those other pitchers are easy?”

Dodger relief ace Ken Howell was anything but easy for the Padres. Howell, in relief of Bob Welch, retired all six batters he faced, striking out three, for his third win in six decisions.

“Looked like a young Goose Gossage to me,” Lasorda said.

The irony was unintended.

“As bad as we were going earlier, we’re still right there,” Russell had said before the game.

“We’ve played them (the Padres) tough all year, and they know it. That just makes us that much better.

“With our pitching, all we’ve got to do is catch the ball and not make many mistakes, and with the pitching we have, we can beat them.”

Welch, making his third start since returning from rehabilitating in Florida, kept his end of the bargain, allowing just five hits and a walk in seven innings.

Still, when Graig Nettles singled and Carmelo Martinez doubled into the gap in right-center with two out in the seventh, Welch found himself trailing, 2-1, as the Dodgers had failed to take advantage of an uncommonly wild Hawkins.

Hawkins, who had won 11 in a row until losing to the Dodgers, 5-1, last Wednesday in Los Angeles, walked five batters in seven innings. He also gave up eight hits, five of which never got out of the infield.

But the Dodgers left the bases loaded in the fourth, two on in the fifth, and 10 in all against Hawkins. Welch drove in the Dodgers’ only run until Russell’s game-tying hit with a two-out, bases-loaded bunt in the fourth.

Nettles had given the Padres a 1-0 lead with an opposite-field home run in the second, a fly ball that just cleared the 327-foot sign in left.

Dodger Notes

The Padres went over the million mark in attendance on their 30th home date. Last season, they didn’t break a million until their 43rd date. . . . The major league record for home runs in a month is 18, set by Rudy York of Detroit in August, 1937. Willie Mays, who hit 17 in August, 1965, is the National League record-holder. . . . After this series, the Dodgers and Padres do not meet again until Sept. 16. “When you’re behind, you always like to play the team ahead of you,” Manager Tom Lasorda said. “But maybe it’ll be to our advantage in September. We might be ahead. It’s like the farmer who lost his horse. His friend said he didn’t know if that was good or bad. The next day, the horse came back with a herd of horses. This series is very important to us, but it’s not the end of the world.” . . . Lasorda, on the Cubs’ 13-game losing streak: “Hard to believe. It’s like when I look at the National League winning all those All-Star Games. I say, How can that be possible? The Cubs have guys who know how to play the game, veteran players. Normally, they don’t beat themselves.” Lasorda said he called Cub catcher Jody Davis, who is hospitalized with a viral infection. . . . Dodger third base coach Joey Amalfitano was manager of the Cubs when they lost 12 in a row in 1981. “There are three things different between the Cubs then and now,” Amalfitano said. “They’re still in the race, their payroll’s higher and they had better players.” Only Davis, Lee Smith and Leon Durham were on that ’81 team, Amalfitano said. “Every reporter in America must have come into my office,” he said. “We won our second game of the season, then lost the next 12. As I recall, they were all close games. We just didn’t have punch. Dave Nightingale (a reporter for the Chicago Tribune at the time) had a bottle of champagne on ice for me, and after we won, he and I sat in my office and drank it.” . . . Jay Johnstone was a member of the ’82 Cub team that lost 13 straight, joining the team in mid-streak. “They had lost seven, then lost six more until I turned them around,” Johnstone said. . . . Steve Howe said he was not given a urine test when he arrived late for Sunday’s game. Asked if there were any provisions that allowed for the Dodgers to test him under such circumstances, Howe said: “The terms of the agreement are mine. I take two (tests) a week, period. And I’m tired of hearing about it. CBS just asked me to do something about substance abuse. I told them to find a substance abuser.” Howe, as he has done on other occasions, took the Dodger lineup card to the umpires before the game.