Rose’s RBI Bunt Defeats Dodgers in 13th Inning, 6-5 : Guerrero’s Absence Leaves L.A. Lacking Source of Its Power

The strike was over, play resumed, but Pedro Guerrero slept on, leaving the Dodgers in the uncomfortable predicament Thursday night of trying to win their longest game of the season without the hottest hitter in baseball.

They couldn’t do it, losing, 6-5, in 13 innings on a daring two-out bunt by Pete Rose, who never missed a wake-up call that mattered.

With pinch-hitter Cesar Cedeno on third after a single, stolen base and an infield out, the switch-hitting Rose--batting right-handed for the first time in the game, against Carlos Diaz--slid his hands up his bat and dropped a perfect bunt about 30-feet down the third-base line.

Diaz fielded it, but his throw was too late as Cedeno scored, giving Diaz his first loss in nearly two full seasons with the Dodgers.

The hit was the second of the night and 4,170th of his career for Rose, the 44-year-old Cincinnati player-manager who is just 22 hits away from breaking Ty Cobb’s all-time hit record.

And the second-place Reds are just four games behind the Dodgers, who took a 5-2 lead into the eighth but couldn’t hold it when Steve Sax took matters into his own hands. Sax tried to make a bare-handed tag on Dave Concepcion’s double play ball with disastrous results, as the ball was knocked out of his hands and two runs scored.

Sax, who also went hitless in five trips, was booed mercilessly by the Dodger Stadium crowd of 37,479, which had thinned out considerably by the end of the four-hour, 14-minute game.

The third-place San Diego Padres, who scored four in the ninth to beat Houston, also gained a game on the Dodgers. They’re six games back.

Four Cincinnati relievers retired 18 Dodgers in a row from Mariano Duncan’s single in the seventh until Ken Landreaux walked with two out in the 13th. But Greg Brock grounded out to Ron Robinson, the sixth Cincinnati pitcher, to end the game.

Superb relief pitching by Tom Niedenfuer, who struck out Buddy Bell and Nick Esasky with runners on first and third in the ninth, sent the game into extra innings. Diaz struck out two Reds in a 1-2-3 12th, before Cedeno started the game-winning rally with a one-out single.

Guerrero was absent after missing his flight from the Dominican Republic Thursday. He overslept after missing his wake-up call, according to Dodger officials.

In the seventh, Sax had bobbled Rose’s ground ball but still managed to turn a double play that ended one Cincinnati threat.

“Well I wasn’t playing in, but I wasn’t real fare back,” said third baseman Bob Bailor, referring to Rose’s bunt. “He (Rose) knew what he was doing.”

Bailor said he probably should have called Diaz off the ball and made the throw himself.

“Chances are, the way this game went I would have run into Carlos,” Bailor said.

On Concepcion’s ball in the eighth, Sax had the option of tossing to Mariano Duncan for another inning-ending double play, but instead chose to try a barehanded tag of base runner Ron Oester.

Al Campanis’ “The Dodger Way to Play Baseball” lost another round with that blunder, as Oester knocked the ball out of Sax’s hand into short left field while two runs scored. That made it 5-4, and the score was tied when Bo Diaz’s ground ball brought home Oester.

Concepcion, incidentally, had held a plane reservation to Venezuela. But unlike Guerrero, he stayed close to home on the advice of player representative Joe Price.

The Dodgers had taken a 5-2 lead on a three-run rally started by Guerrero’s replacement, Len Matuszek, in the fifth. In the sixth, Matuszek was hit by a pitch by Cincinnati starter Mario Soto and was forced to leave the game. Matuszek threw up his arms to protect his face and according to Dodger trainer Bill Buhler suffered bruises on both forearms.

R.J. Reynolds, who ended up playing left field in Matuszek’s place, singled and eventually scored on a wild pitch for the Dodgers’ fifth run in the seventh.

The first run scored in the fifth when Soto balked with the bases loaded. Soto started his windup, stopped, then stepped off the rubber. Cabell then followed with a ground-ball double that skipped over the third-base bag.

Guerrero had a 15-game hitting streak (23 for 51, .451) coming into the game. He had homered in four of the previous five games. Against the Reds this season, he had a team-high batting average of .370, with 12 RBIs and 4 home runs, one of which had come off Thursday night’s pitcher, Soto, in last Saturday’s game.

The man who replaced Guerrero in the lineup, Matuszek, was batting .211 for the Dodgers. He had three hits in 11 at-bats, no home runs and two RBIs. This was his fourth start of the season since coming to the Dodgers from Toronto July 9 in a trade for Al Oliver.

“We won a bunch of games when Pete wasn’t here,” said Cabell, alluding to the Dodgers’ 6-1 record while Guerrero was absent with a bad back.

“He’s the best player in the league, but there’s nothing you can do about it.”

Said Russell: “We’re not upset. What are you going to do but just go on? He’ll be back tomorrow.”

The Dodgers’ sixth-inning rally helped them overcome some early inning wildness by Hershiser, who walked three Reds in a two-run first.

Hershiser, who had been scheduled to pitch in Tuesday’s strike-postponed game, appeared to be affected by the extra two days’ rest. Walks to Eddie Milner, Buddy Bell and Nick Esasky loaded the bases for Oester, who lined a hanging breaking pitch into right for a two-run single.

Hershiser, who came into the game with an 8-0 record at home and had won his last four decisions, settled down to retire the next 13 Reds in a row before Rose hit an opposite-field single to open the sixth. It was only the second hit in 15 at-bats against the Dodgers this season for Rose. Both came off Hershiser.