Reuss Pulls Some Strings, Beats Braves

Jerry Reuss is not so set in his ways that he won’t listen to a pitching coach. When you’re 5-6 and you’ve just turned 36, you’ll listen to the traveling secretary. So it’s no wonder that Reuss, the tall man with whitish-blond hair whom they call Q-Tip, lent an ear when the coaching staff suggested he try to change speeds more often.

Hey, sometimes they’re right. With Reuss forsaking the fastball in favor of off-speed pitches here and there, the Dodgers were able to beat the Atlanta Braves, 3-2, Saturday before a crowd of 39,141 at Dodger Stadium.

Q-Tip waxed eloquent afterward on a pitcher’s need to adjust from time to time. “Sometimes you have to make changes to be successful,” he said. Whether this meant a change in style . . . well, Reuss wasn’t saying. However, there was no debating what the adjustment meant to the Dodgers, who snapped a three-game losing streak and also Atlanta’s five-game winning streak. And Pedro Guerrero, honored before the game for his fabulous June Boon, didn’t even have to hit a home run.

Reuss (6-6), who was lifted with two out in the ninth in favor of Tom Niedenfuer, led reporters to believe that his decision to bewilder the Braves instead of bedazzle them was entirely spontaneous. As in: “I’m a wild and crazy guy. Try a change-up.”

Reuss said: “Sometimes you just have a hunch. I don’t know, I just went out and threw.”

The way he talked, it was something he read in his horoscope. Yet Manager Tom Lasorda, who deprived Reuss of a complete game after Bob Horner touched the pitcher for a two-run homer, said the change in delivery was a bit more calculated than that. “They (the coaches and Reuss) talked it over,” he said. “They thought he should change speeds a little more.”

Lasorda continued: “Even though Jerry has 16 years in, he still gets into bad habits. Older pitchers are just like anybody else. They need somebody to watch them.”

All but the Braves liked what they were watching as Reuss, in his 500th game, took a three-hitter into the ninth. He was particularly kind to his teammates, keeping them off the hot turf for long stretches at a time. Once, he got out of an inning with five pitches. Another inning, he required seven.

“It’s a hot day, a humid day,” Reuss said. “Players tend to get a little flat-footed. You conserve energy.”

His teammates were grateful enough to stand him to a run in the first when Ken Landreaux lofted a fly ball to bring in Dave Anderson from third; another in the second when Steve Sax hit the inning’s third grounder through the infield, and another in the sixth.

That run in the sixth, however, was provided as much by Atlanta pitcher Rick Mahler (11-7) as anybody else. He advanced R.J. Reynolds from first to third on a wild pickoff throw. Mahler was particularly frustrated. “I wasn’t even trying to pick him off,” he said. “Just keep him close.” Reynolds scored on Mike Scioscia’s single.

But that wasn’t the only break the Dodgers got Saturday. The Braves gave up a run right at the start, in the first inning. Rafael Ramirez was standing on third with one out when Horner hit a shot to center. Ramirez, strangely, broke for the plate at the crack of the bat and had to retreat when Landreaux caught the ball. What would have been a sacrifice fly was a fruitless out.

Ramirez said he was so primed to charge toward the plate on a ground ball that he forgot about the possibility of a fly ball. “ Malo base-running,” he admitted.

Said Lasorda: “Not the first time I’ve seen that. Once you break forward, there’s no chance to recover. His first move was forward. They just think it’s going to be in there.”

So Reuss, who has now won one more game than he did all last season, got all kinds of help--everybody from Atlanta base-runners to Dodger coaches. The only unwanted assistance, of course, came from Bob Horner, who helped him to the clubhouse.

“I wanted to pitch a shutout,” Reuss lamented. But Horner lifted the ball high and hard. “The only thing I regret is the pitch to Horner,” Reuss said. “Of course, had he popped it up, it would have been a great pitch.”

Instead, it was a great hit, but not one that turned a game around, just Reuss.

Dodger Notes

Pedro Guerrero, who has hit 14 home runs this month to tie a National League record for June set by Ralph Kiner and matched by Mike Schmidt, was honored before the game. It was his 29th birthday as well. Guerrero went 0 for 4. . . . Jerry Reuss, after a postgame radio interview, began to talk with reporters but then had a better idea. “Let me see if NBC wants me,” he said, getting up to go see Joe Garagiola. Said Joe: “No, we want Lasorda. Nothing personal.” TV took Reuss, anyway. . . . Tom Niedenfuer, who got his sixth save Saturday, has not allowed a run in his last eight games. . . . Today’s pitching matchup: The Dodgers’ Bob Welch (1-1) vs. the Braves’ Pascual Perez (0-5).