For Fernando, It’s Command Performance : He Earns Rose’s All-Star Vote After Shutting Out Reds, 3-0

The decision is Dick Williams’ to make, but Pete Rose didn’t mind playing a game of “what if” after his Cincinnati Reds were shut out by the Dodgers’ Fernando Valenzuela, 3-0, Tuesday night before a sellout crowd of 49,207 at Dodger Stadium.

“If I were picking the All-Star team, which I’m not paid to do,” Rose said, “Fernando would make it.

“But how much do you bet he doesn’t? You’re on for a Pepsi the next time we come in.”

The next time the Dodgers return to Los Angeles, the All-Star game will have been played--assuming there isn’t a strike. And if form holds, Valenzuela will have represented the National League, as he has done in each of his previous four seasons.

But while Valenzuela was at the top of his form Tuesday night, allowing the Reds just three singles, one base-runner after the fourth inning while striking out eight, his 8-8 record still identifies him as a .500 pitcher.

That didn’t seem to matter last season, when he was chosen over teammate Alejandro Pena, though Pena’s midseason record (10-4) was clearly superior to Valenzuela’s (8-9). And it may not matter now, although Valenzuela’s selection may come at the expense of teammate Orel Hershiser, who is 8-2.

But as catcher Mike Scioscia cautioned, the won-loss record tells only part of the story. Other numbers make a compelling case in Valenzuela’s favor:

--The shutout was his fourth of the season, most in the league and matching him with Cleveland’s Bert Blyleven for most in the majors.

--The complete game was his league-leading ninth of the season.

--His eight strikeouts gave him 111, third only to Dwight Gooden and Nolan Ryan.

--His earned-run average of 2.34 puts him in the top 10 again.

Valenzuela prefers to let the debate rage around him.

“I don’t know,” he said, when asked if he should be an All-Star. “It’s good not making the team, too. Three days off.”

He laughed. “No, I’d rather pitch in the game. The last four years I’ve made the team.”

Asking Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda whether Valenzuela belongs on the All-Star team is like asking David Letterman whether Terry Forster is a fat tub of goo.

“To me he does,” Lasorda said. “He’s one of the top four pitchers in the league. Him, (Dwight) Gooden, (Mario) Soto, and (Joaquin) Andujar.

“He pitched some game, didn’t he? Talk about command. When they came up with that word in baseball, they must have seen a game like that.”

Valenzuela’s pitching wasn’t the only thing that made for good Dodger viewing Tuesday night. Pedro Guerrero, who was named the league’s player of the month earlier in the day, had three singles and drove in two runs.

“We’ve asked everybody in the stands not to change the calendar,” Lasorda said. “Pete’s still thinking it’s June.”

With a left-hander, Joe Price, pitching for the Reds, Candy Maldonado made an infrequent start in center field and made the defensive play of the game, diving to take extra bases from Nick Esasky in the fourth with a runner on first.

Greg Brock raised his average to .250 with a double that set up a run in the fourth and is hitting .350 in his last 20 games. Scioscia, who is hitting .339 in his last 20 games and .263 overall, had an RBI sacrifice fly.

It’s no coincidence that the Dodgers are six games above .500 for the first time this season and four games out of first place after their fourth win in a row. Guerrero isn’t the only Dodger hitting these days, which is why Rose twice chose to pitch to him with first base open and lost both times.

“I don’t think I can continue to carry the club by myself,” Guerrero said. “Brock’s been hitting well, Ken Landreaux (.282 in June) is hitting. If they get on, we’ll be all right.”

The Dodgers, who went 14-8 in a 22-game stretch against Western Division opponents, leave for an 11-game trip against three teams in the East: St. Louis, Pittsburgh and Chicago.

“I’m very pleased,” Lasorda said. “We’re not only playing good defensively, we’re playing very aggressively offensively. We’re doing everything we can to manufacture runs.

“You’d see how we’re going into second base? Head-first (R.J. Reynolds on his fourth-inning double). We’re getting our uniforms dirty. We’ve increased our laundry bill.”

Now that’s one tab even Lasorda might pick up.

Dodger Notes

Candy Maldonado, apparently upset about being lifted for a pinch-hitter in the eighth, stormed out of the Dodger clubhouse Tuesday night, refusing to talk to reporters. . . . The Dodgers brought a .240 team batting average into Tuesday’s game, the first time this season it has been that high. . . . The power in Dodger Stadium went out for about 10 minutes before the game. “First one (blackout) I can remember,” Manager Tom Lasorda said. But that didn’t keep Lasorda from posing, with the aid of a flashlight, for a picture in his office with a young fan. . . . Pitcher Alejandro Pena threw about 12 minutes of batting practice and was reported to have experienced some discomfort. Pitching coach Ron Perranoski said Pena’s velocity was about 80 m.p.h. and pushed back Pena’s next outing a day to Saturday. . . . Mike Marshall, who underwent an appendectomy on June 20, was examined by a neurosurgeon, who discovered an irritation to a sensory nerve, the result of a prior operation. Marshall was prescribed medication and is scheduled to be re-examined Tuesday. He had planned to return to his parents’ home in Chicago, where he expected to rejoin the team next weekend.