Guerrero Ends Month With a Game-Winner

Unless they happened to be listening to Vin Scully, who mentioned it on the radio, many fans in the crowd of 36,804 at Dodger Stadium Sunday afternoon were unaware that Steve Howe was missing.

So was Pedro Guerrero, or so he says.

“I didn’t even know he wasn’t here,” Guerrero said. “I don’t follow people who come here late. That’s the manager’s and the coaches’ job.”

Guerrero was intent on minding his own business, which for the last month has been like no other in L.A. Dodger history. And Sunday, he closed out the ledger for June with a spectacular windfall, hitting a game-winning, two-run home run off Atlanta’s Bruce Sutter, the relief pitcher of the 80s, in a 4-3 Dodger win over the Braves.

Because of Howe, the Dodgers someday may look back at this day in sorrow. For Guerrero, however, the day will forever be a centerpiece of pride and satisfaction.

The home run gave him 15 for the month, breaking the National League record for June and tying him with Duke Snider for the most home runs hit by a Dodger in any month. Snider, a Hall of Famer, hit 15 for Brooklyn in August, 1953.

“I don’t remember a moment like this, except in the World Series,” Guerrero said. “To hit a home run my last time up on the last day, the last chance, as the song goes--to go out and do it. . . .”

Guerrero laughed and shook his head. “How did I do it?”

For those who weren’t there, it went something like this: The Dodgers, who had trailed, 3-1, on fifth-inning home runs by Claudell Washington and Dale Murphy, had closed within a run on Al Oliver’s pinch single off Rick Camp in the seventh.

That’s when the summons went out for Sutter, the $44 million bullpen artist who had converted 14 of his 18 save opportunities this season. Sutter started the eighth by retiring Mariano Duncan on a bunt in front of the plate. But Ken Landreaux followed with a line single to right, which brought up Guerrero to face the prospect of going 0 for the weekend after going crazy for the first 27 days of the month.

Guerrero was hitless in his last 14 at-bats, despite driving the ball hard to Washington on the line in right and Murphy in the gap in right-center in his last two trips.

“I was hitting the ball,” Guerrero said. “And as long as I was hitting the ball, it was OK with me. You know when I start worrying? When I start striking out.”

Sutter’s first pitch to Guerrero was a ball. The next was a split-fingered fastball that wasn’t very fast and forgot to split. Guerrero hit it halfway into the pavilion over the 370 sign in left for his league-leading 19th home run of the season, one more than Murphy.

In the Dodger bullpen, where Carlos Diaz was warming up with catcher Steve Yeager, Tom Niedenfuer leaped up and said: “There it goes.” Yeager turned to follow the flight of Guerrero’s ball and caught a pitch from Diaz flush in the forehead.

“I just hung the ball, and he’s a good cripple hitter,” Sutter said. “He doesn’t miss very many of those. He’s not a school kid.”

But Guerrero acted as excited as one as he toured the bases. He exchanged high-fives with his mentor, Dodger coach Manny Mota, as he rounded the bag at first and again at the plate with Greg Brock, the on-deck hitter. The rest of his teammates poured out of the dugout, with Manager Tom Lasorda locking him in an embrace.

Guerrero then came out for a curtain call, blowing kisses to the fans, then one to his wife, Denise.

“The first two times up today I thought, ‘This is going to be the last day,’ ” Guerrero said. “ ‘If I don’t hit it today, it’s fine.’ I’m glad at least that I got close to it (the record for the month) and broke the L.A. record. I was happy with that.

“And now I’ll probably have a chance to rest a little bit.”

Unless, by chance, June somehow sprouts a 31st day this year.

“That would be nice,” Guerrero said.

Dodger Notes Pedro Guerrero, who won the game with his bat, ended the game with his glove, catching Albert Hall’s sinking line drive to left and doubling Gerald Perry off second base. . . . Manager Tom Lasorda said he thought that Guerrero may have been too conscious of the home run-record in his first three at-bats. “I said to Monty (Basgall), it looks like he’s trying to hit a home run, it might affect him,”’ Lasorda said. “But he made contact with that ball. It jumped out of here. That’s one of the great single achievements a hitter could ever accomplish, and it meant a lot to the team.” . . .Ken Howell, who worked two hitless innings in relief of Bob Welch, got credit for the win, his fourth of the season. Welch allowed seven hits and three runs in seven innings, threw two wild pitches and was charged with an error when he dropped a foul fly by Claudell Washington, the first batter of the game. . . . Dodger right fielder R.J. Reynolds also dropped a ball by Washington after nearly depriving him of a home run. Reynolds made a leaping catch of Washington’s fifth-inning drive, his glove actually traveling beyond the wall, but on his way down his wrist struck the wall and the ball popped out of his glove and back onto the field. “It took so long to come down, I thought maybe it had rebounded off the cement or stairs,” Reynolds said. “So I decided to throw it in and let them figure it out.” . . . Reynolds also was charged with an error when he lost Ken Oberkfell’s flyball in the sun in the fourth, the ball landing behind his head. “I had my glove over my head,” Reynolds said. “It was an all-around interesting day.” . . . Steve Sax, who drove in the Dodgers’ first run in the second had RBIs in back-to-back games for the first time since May 7 and 8.