Dodgers Beaten by Perez, Despite Guerrero’s Homer

While the major league players prepare to walk out Tuesday because they can’t agree with owners about--among other things--how much pension money they should get, the Dodgers were beaten Sunday afternoon by a guy who’s eligible to start collecting his pension in two years.

Tony Perez, who in an earlier life used to terrorize the Dodgers as part of Cincinnati’s Big Red Machine, surfaced again Sunday at age 43 to wield some old magic in the Reds’ 5-4 win over the Dodgers before 39,049 in Riverfront Stadium.

The win gave the Reds a four-game split of their series with the Dodgers and left them five games behind L.A. in the National League West. The San Diego Padres, who lost a three-game set in Houston remain six games behind.

Perez, who can’t even be called old-timer because he shares first base with 44-year-old Pete Rose, first homered off Fernando Valenzuela, who had handled him with ease when Perez was a mere lad of 41, striking him out four times in their first encounter.

And, then in the eighth, after Pedro Guerrero’s three-run home run helped the Dodgers back from a 4-0 deficit and continued one of the more amazing soliloquies this side of Hamlet, Perez turned up again, this time with a single off Dodger reliever Ken Howell that scored Dave Parker to break a 4-4 tie.

“Age has nothing to do with it,” said Howell, who was born in 1960, the year that Perez broke into professional baseball. “It’s talent, I believe.

“I threw a fastball inside on him and he fought it off. I knew, in that situation, I needed a strikeout and I challenged him. This time I lost.”

The list of Perez’s victims is legion.

“That old man is the greatest clutch hitter I’ve ever played with,” said Parker, who hit a two-run homer off Valenzuela in the first and preceded Perez’s game-winner by reaching out and stroking an 0-and-2 fastball to the wall in left for a double.

There was still time for one more swing from Guerrero when R.J. Reynolds walked and Enos Cabell singled with two out in the ninth. And that’s all he got--one swing. After Guerrero fouled off a 1-and-0 pitch from ex-Dodger Ted Power, the next three pitches made a detour from the strike zone.

With the bases loaded, Rose came out to the mound to talk to Power.

“Pete said, ‘Maybe that’s the best thing you could have done, considering how hot he (Guerrero) is,’ ” Power said.

And even though the walk had advanced the winning run to second base, the strategy worked, as Mike Marshall fouled out to first baseman Cesar Cedeno, who had entered the game as a pinch-runner for Perez.

“You don’t want to walk him (Guerrero) because if the guy behind him gets a hit, you lose the game,” Lasorda said. “But he (Power) got away with it. . . . Mike just got underneath that ball. If he had hit it in the middle, he would have hit it a ton.”

Rose, who had watched Guerrero hit home runs in each of the first three games of the series, showed he wanted no part of Guerrero in the first inning Sunday, ordering Reds starter Tom Browning to walk him with first base open and two out.

Guerrero looked into the Reds’ dugout at Rose as he walked to first. “I told him, ‘What’s going on, it’s only the first inning,’ ” Guerrero said.

“He told me, ‘I’m going to walk you four times.’ ”

Browning, bidding to become the first non-Padre to shut out the Dodgers this season, retired Guerrero his next two at-bats and had first base open when Guerrero came to the plate in the eighth with two runners on.

“We made a mistake and pitched to him,” Perez said.

By now, the Dodgers almost take it for granted that Guerrero will deliver in that situation.

“You know something’s going to happen,” said left fielder R.J. Reynolds, who gave the Reds a run when he lost Nick Esasky’s liner in the seventh but was on base with a single when Guerrero crushed his 27th home run over the right-field fence. Rose was walking faster to the mound to replace Browning than Guerrero was strolling to first base after the home run that gave him a share of the league lead with Dale Murphy.

Power, who had an 0.78 ERA in his previous 18 appearances and has 18 saves overall, came in to protect a 4-3 lead but couldn’t do it, as Marshall slammed a ball through third baseman Buddy Bell for a two-base error and pinch-hitter Ken Landreaux doubled over the head of left-fielder Gary Redus.

“These guys don’t think they can lose,” Cabell said. “It’s a completely different team than the one I played against when I was still with the Astros.”

Marshall found it hard to believe that Power walked Guerrero on purpose in the ninth. “He was wild,” he said. “The first pitch he threw me was over my head.” But there was little doubt in Guerrero’s mind.

“Can you imagine if I had hit a home run right there, what would have happened?” Guerrero said.

“Right now Marshall is hitting the ball good, but I think I’m hitting a little better than anyone. In any situation like that, they’re going to try and go around me.”

For once, the Reds avoided Guerrero. Maybe the day will come when the Dodgers can dodge Perez.

“He called me ‘old man?’ ” Perez said with a smile when Parker’s comment was relayed to him.

“I always feel I can hit. I’m lucky. My reflexes, my legs and my eyes are still good. When they’re not, then it will be time to go.”

That time can’t come soon enough for the Dodgers.

Dodger notes Tony Perez’s home run Sunday was his 33rd against the Dodgers in his career. Only six players have hit more, led by Henry Aaron with 77. Perez, who was traded to the Reds from the Phillies in December, 1983, became a free agent last November and was re-signed by the Reds on April 2, is batting .330 in 43 games with the Reds this season. Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda on Perez: “He’s some kind of hitter. At his age, he’s amazing. He walked right up there and hit that ball.” . . . Mariano Duncan broke an 0-for-19 string with his eighth-inning single that started the Dodgers’ four-run rally. After R.J. Reynolds singled, Enos Cabell followed with what would have been another base hit, except it caromed off pitcher Tom Browning’s leg to third baseman Buddy Bell, who threw him out. . . . In the four-game series against the Reds, Pedro Guerrero had five hits in 16 at-bats, with four home runs, four runs scored, and eight RBIs. . . . Ken Landreaux had only one hit in 13 previous tries as a pinch hitter before doubling off Ted Power. “That’s not my job,” Landreaux said of pinch-hitting, “but you have to do what you’ve got to do.” . . . The Dodgers had won six straight series before splitting with the Reds. . . . The Dodgers have lost on the last five Sundays. . . . Fernando Valenzuela had his second straight no decision after winning five in a row.