Welch Stops Cardinals, 5-2, to Keep Dodgers at the Top : Right-Hander Goes All the Way, Raises His Record to 4-1

The Dodgers’ Bob Welch, who had spent the early part of the season in Class-A baseball rehabilitating a sprained elbow, was in a class all by himself Friday night as he cooled the Cardinals, going the distance in a 5-2 victory over St. Louis.

That victory over the East Division leader kept the West leader in first place, a half-game ahead of the San Diego Padres. It also seemed to confirm that Welch, in his seventh appearance since returning to the big team, was all the way back, after being the Dodgers’ winningest pitcher last year.

“I’m all the way back,” he said with his customary bravado. “All the way back from Huntington Beach.”

Welch, of course, can be hard to impress. After holding the league’s best hitting team to just five hits, and two of those infield singles, Welch complained of not being in control. He said he was lucky. “It may not have looked it,” he said, “but I was struggling.”

He was right about one thing: It didn’t look it.

It wasn’t all Welch, although his five-hitter over the oft-hitting Cardinals was impressive enough, to all but him anyway. The Dodgers, playing before a sellout crowd of 49,472 in Dodger Stadium, also got some hitting of their own to back him. The hitting was of the light-industrial variety, but it came in a third-inning bunch that kept the Cardinals at bay throughout the evening.

With Pedro Guerrero (21 home runs) on the shelf for at least the rest of the week because of a bad back, a lot of Dodgers stepped forth at the plate to carry the load. Nobody carried Guerrero’s heavy bat but, with everybody hitting those pesky singles, it hardly mattered.

Like Welch, some of these new ‘hitters’ credited it to good luck. This was at least consistent with their complaints earlier in the season when they weren’t getting any hits. Their luck was bad then. A lot of people used to think this was a game of skill

Ken Landreaux, whose two-RBI double keyed the Dodgers big third inning, said: “It’s about time things changed, especially for me. Awhile back, that would have been a line drive to the first baseman. The ball is falling in on key situations is the difference.”

Likewise Greg Brock, who had three singles Friday night to remain the Dodgers hottest hitter, thanked Lady Luck. “A lot of balls I had hit weren’t falling,” he said. “Now we’re getting some breaks and they’re falling. I hit a ball hard, it falls.”

The real Dodger luck, however, was in getting Welch back in one piece after his recovery from a sprained ligament in his right elbow. Since coming back early in June, Welch (4-1) has pitched 50 innings and allowed 13 earned runs. In that time he’s won four of his seven starts. “He can’t throw the ball any harder than that,” said Manager Tom Lasorda, when asked if Welch was all the way back.

He was especially intimidating in the first three innings when he topped his season high with six strikeouts, five of them called. “They were pretty good pitches,” even he had to admit. He slowed his pace some and finished with nine, a good night’s, or perhaps a lucky night’s work.

Only Jack Clark was able to touch him, although Clark did touch him pretty good. Clark hit his 18th homer to lead off the second inning and then in the ninth, drove a ball to deep right field. “I thought that was gone,” Welch said.

It wasn’t and it wouldn’t have much mattered if it was because the Dodgers, hardly Ruthian without Guerrero, turned into a hitting machine, scoring four runs in the third inning off starter and loser Danny Cox (11-5). The hits were not tape-measure hits; four in that inning went through the box on the way to center field. But they all came in a row and that, plus Mike Marshall’s double to center, was enough to chase Cox.

“When we get five runs,” said Brock, “with our pitching, we’ll win some ball games.”

The Dodgers, who lapsed on the base paths the night before in a 2-1 victory over the Cards, were only a little better Friday night. Welch froze on first base and was picked off and also was tagged out at home, “about 20 feet in front of the plate” by his estimation.

Mariano Duncan made up for that, though, reaching third on a walk in the fifth inning. Ball four turned out to be something of a wild pitch, advancing him all the way to second. Then he took third on catcher Tom Nieto’s bad throw to second. A good thing for the Dodgers. Landreaux then drove a ball that took right fielder Andy Van Slyke into the wall, and Duncan scored easily.

Meanwhile the Cardinals, the league’s best at both getting on and advancing on the base paths, had trouble getting to first. Except for Clark’s home run and his RBI single, the Cardinals did a lot of standing around at the plate. Willie McGee managed two hits, but they were both infield jobs to third base. Darrell Porter got the only other “real” hit, a pinch-hit double in the eighth inning.

Welch, despite his nice run since returning to the Dodgers full time, downplayed his part in the team’s climb into first place. “I don’t know if I had a lot to do with it,” he said, “I only pitch once every five days. But it is nice to contribute.”

The Dodgers are lucky that way.

Dodger Notes

Greg Brock, who had singles in his first three at-bats, has hit in nine of 10 games. . . . The Cardinals’ Vince Coleman, who had stolen base No. 64 the night before, didn’t get on base Friday night. He struck out three times. . . . Bob Welch, who is often used as a pinch-runner, didn’t set the base paths afire Friday night. In the third inning, waved in from second by third base coach Joe Amilfitano on a single to center, he was tagged out five feet in front of the plate. Then in the seventh, after he singled to right, he was picked off first by pitcher Ricky Horton. . . . Tonight’s pitching matchup: the Dodgers’ Fernando Valenzuela (10-8) vs. John Tudor (10-7).