This Time, It’s . . . Whitfield? : Dodgers Do It Again--on Pinch Homer; Lead by Nine

The Terry Toss is a portable pitching machine of Terry Whitfield’s own invention that he uses to while away the hours between pinch-hitting gigs for the Dodgers.

The gadget, which Whitfield sets up in a hallway outside the Dodger clubhouse, does what its name indicates: It flips baseballs down a chute to a mechanical device that flips the balls in the air for Whitfield to hit. It has not yet caught on like the Hula Hoop.

Thursday, Whitfield forgot his Terry Toss, leaving it at home. Not to worry. Instead, he used the Bruce Sutter Toss--a live-armed version of his own gizmo offered by the Atlanta Braves--and broke the machine, not to mention the Braves, with a 400-foot two-run homer in the eighth inning that gave the Dodgers their seventh straight win, this one 5-4 before a crowd of 42,169 at Dodger Stadium.

The Braves paid $10.125 million for Sutter, who supposedly had a lifetime warranty but lately has been as defective as a $5 wristwatch--especially against the Dodgers, who have beaten him twice with late-inning home runs.

First, it was Pedro Guerrero, who hit his record-setting 15th home run of June off a pitch by the Brave reliever. That was understandable.

This, however, was Whitfield, who had two home runs all season, the last on May 9 off Neil Allen of the St. Louis Cardinals.

But that, however, is how things have been going for the Dodgers, who now lead San Diego and Cincinnati by nine games in the National League West after an eight-game home stand in which they lost only once--when Guerrero arrived a day late from the Dominican Republic and missed a game after the player walkout.

“They put up a pinch-hitter and the guy hits a home run,” said Dale Murphy, whose league-leading 31st homer of the season off Fernando Valenzuela had given the Braves a 4-2 lead in the fifth inning.

In the first, the Braves had ended the Dodgers’ streak of 52 innings without allowing an earned run when Bob Horner singled home Brad Komminsk for a 1-0 lead.

“There’s no way they can continue this hot,” Murphy said, “but then again, I don’t think they’re going to get much cooler, either.”

Two nights earlier, in a similar situation, Brave Manager Eddie Haas failed to use Sutter, leaving in Terry Forster, who gave up a game-winning home run to Mike Marshall. This time, Haas went to his bearded ace, who got Marshall to pop up with the bases loaded in the seventh but failed to get past Whitfield, the last left-handed pinch-hitter available to Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda, after walking Guerrero in the eighth.

Sutter went to a 2-and-1 count on Whitfield, then threw his patented split-fingered fastball. Whitfield made the pitch split, all right--400 feet over the center-field fence and over the head of Murphy, whose glove flew off his hand in his vain attempt to catch the ball.

“Unbelievable,” muttered Horner, after someone noted that the Braves have now lost 22 of their last 31 games in Dodger Stadium.

“No matter what the situation is, they always manage to come up with something.”

Before Whitfield went to the plate, Lasorda came up with an offer. “I told him, ‘Bring home the run, and I’ll buy you a sports coat,’ ” the manager said.

“I kept saying to myself, ‘Murphy, run out of room, run out of room,’ ” Lasorda added. “I thought he might catch it. He looked like Andre Dawson going after that ball (Rick) Monday hit in Montreal.”

Monday’s home run won a pennant for the Dodgers in 1981, and Whitfield’s may be part of the design for another pennant.

“I’ll take him down personally and have him measured for the jacket,” Lasorda said.

Whitfield said he didn’t need the help. “I have a tailor,” Whitfield said. “A Japanese tailor.”

In Japan, it was not uncommon for Whitfield to hit home runs--38 in 1983 for the Seibu Lions. He said he hit a ball 500 feet and clear out of one stadium.

“Terry has the strength to do it,” Marshall said. “That was not a fluke. You can see it in batting practice--nobody hits ‘em farther more consistently than Terry.”

But in games, the opportunity seldom arises for Whitfield, who has 10 hits in 33 at-bats as a pinch-hitter, what Greg Brock called “the toughest job in baseball.”

Whitfield, who earlier this season went through an 0-for-21 slump, is inclined to agree.

“The life I have to live is a very tough life,” he said. “I just try to do my best all the time.

“When I went 0 for 21, I was pressing when I shouldn’t have been, overswinging or something. Things like that do happen.

“But you have to forget about it. If you worry about yesterday or two weeks ago today, you’re dead, buddy.”

With his home run, Whitfield resurrected a seventh straight win for Valenzuela, the man for whom he batted, on a day that the Dodgers didn’t start Guerrero, Mariano Duncan and Enos Cabell because of assorted ailments.

Guerrero was resting his sore left knee, Duncan had gone to the hospital for tests after complaining of dizziness the night before and Cabell has a sore left side.

Guerrero’s replacement, Len Matuszek, had two hits and singled in Brock with the Dodgers’ first run in the second. Duncan’s replacement, Bill Russell, doubled, singled, walked and sacrificed.

“There’s something different on this club, I’ll tell you that,” said Steve Sax, who had two hits and stole a base while batting in Duncan’s leadoff spot.

There was something different in the stands, too: two bikinied young women in the reserved section behind the plate, whose gyrations drew the attention of the players below.

“Almost as exciting as the game,” Sax said. “Unbelievable.”

Said Lasorda: “I have guys who can’t see a sign from 90 feet away who spotted that from 300 feet. I looked, but I couldn’t find ‘em. Joe Ferguson, our ‘Eye in the Sky,’ said on his walkie-talkie, ‘Look up, quick.’ ”

That was the only sight Lasorda missed all day.

Dodger Notes Tom Niedenfuer gave up a ninth-inning double to Ken Oberkfell and walked pinch-hitter Claudell Washington but still recorded his career-high 12th save and third in four games against the Braves. . . . Fernando Valenzuela (14-8) gave up seven hits in eight innings, walking one and striking out four. “I felt OK,” Valenzuela said. “On the one pitch to (Dale) Murphy,” on Murphy’s homer in the fifth, “I tried to throw it up and in, but it was too good for the hitter.” . . . Mariano Duncan, who complained of dizziness after Wednesday night’s game, was taken to Glendale Hospital for blood tests Thursday and arrived at Dodger Stadium just before the game. The tests proved normal, according to Dr. Frank Jobe. Duncan entered the game as a pinch-runner for Pedro Guerrero in the eighth and played shortstop in the ninth. “Everything is fine now,” Duncan said. . . . Guerrero, the tendinitis in his left knee acting up again, asked to take the day off Thursday but played the last four innings. Guerrero fouled out against reliever Jeff Dedmon as a pinch-hitter with the bases loaded in the fifth and drew a walk from Bruce Sutter in the eighth. “Last night was a little cold, and it got a little stiff,” Guerrero said. “I thought a day off would help.” . . . Enos Cabell said he’ll test the sore muscle on his left side before tonight’s game in San Francisco, but doesn’t expect to play until Saturday against the Giants. . . . Tom Lasorda on Bruce Sutter: “I hope he’ll come back in the next two days.” The Braves are playing in San Diego over the weekend.