Gooden Goes 9, Valenzuela 11, but Dodgers lose in 13

Darryl Strawberry, who recently hit his 20th home run the same day his good friend, Dwight Gooden, became the youngest pitcher in history to win 20 games, sliced a two-run, ground-rule double off Dodger reliever Tom Niedenfuer in the 13th inning Friday night to give the New York Mets a 2-0 win over the Dodgers before a crowd of 51,868 at Dodger Stadium.

It was the largest crowd to see a game here since Steve Garvey first returned as a San Diego Padre.

Strawberry’s hit came too late to win a 21st game for Gooden, who departed after a five-hitter through nine innings in which he struck out 10 Dodgers and did not walk a batter. “Just his normal self,” said Steve Sax, one of the few Dodgers not to go down on strikes against Gooden.

Strawberry’s hit also came too late to pin a defeat on Fernando Valenzuela, who labored longer than he ever has as a Dodger--11 innings, during which he gave up six hits but also came away with a no-decision in the rubber match of his mano a mano duel with Gooden.

“I have nothing but praise for him (Gooden),” Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda said. “But our guy pitched an outstanding game, also.

“When you pitch 11 scoreless innings and you’re playing at home, you should win the ballgame.”

The fans, who saluted Valenzuela with two standing ovations, the last after he’d retired the Mets on three ground balls in the 11th, were on their feet at the end as well, when the Dodgers loaded the bases with two out against Met reliever Jesse Orosco.

But Bill Madlock, who had four singles in five previous at-bats, popped out to Met first baseman Keith Hernandez to end the game and give the Mets a dramatic win in what may be a preview of the National League playoffs.

With their fifth win in a row, the Mets remained 1 1/2 games behind St. Louis in the East. The Dodgers, who had won three in a row after dropping four straight to Philadelphia, lost a game to both the Cincinnati Reds and Padres in the West. The Reds trail by 7 1/2 games; the Padres are 8 back.

“The Dodgers can afford to lose,” Met Manager Davey Johnson said. “We can’t. The Cardinals had already won, so we needed this.”

Homecomings have been something of an embarrassment for Strawberry, the former Crenshaw High School star who was batting .122 (9 for 74) against the Dodgers before this season.

He was hitless in five trips when he came to the plate with one out in the 13th and Met runners on second and third. Niedenfuer, after consulting with pitching coach Ron Perranoski, elected to pitch to Strawberry rather than face Gary Carter, who had homered five times in the previous two games.

Strawberry drove a 1-and-1 pitch that landed just inside the foul line and bounced into the stands on one hop near the foul pole. The hit scored Hernandez, a late arrival from Pittsburgh after testifying in a drug-trafficking trial, and Wally Backman, who had singled Hernandez to third.

The Mets failed to get a runner to third against Valenzuela in the longest scoreless game the Dodgers have been involved in since losing, 1-0, to the Mets in 14 innings on June 17, 1976.

After failing to get to Gooden, the Dodgers put the first two runners on in the 12th against Met reliever Roger McDowell. But Steve Yeager, who hadn’t played since his 0-for-6 night against the Phillies Aug. 21, popped up a bunt attempt after sacrificing successfully in the 10th.

Pinch-hitter Enos Cabell, like Hernandez a witness in the Pittsburgh trial, then struck out against Orosco, and Bob Bailor ended the inning with a fly to left.

In the 13th, pinch-hitter Bill Russell walked, and Mike Marshall delivered a two-out single, bringing up Pedro Guerrero to the screams of an expectant crowd. Guerrero walked on a full count, but Madlock, 10 for 21 as a Dodger, popped out, touching off a Met celebration.

“This was one of my very best games,” Valenzuela said. “Everybody was excited about this game. We just couldn’t get the run in.”

The closest the Dodgers came to doing so was in the eighth, when Mariano Duncan, who had one hit in his previous 32 at-bats, lined a drive to right that ex-Dodger Tom Paciorek misjudged at first but then caught one-handed before tumbling to the ground.

“How the bleep did he catch that ball,” Lasorda muttered afterward.

Gooden escaped a jam in the eighth after singles by Mike Scioscia and Greg Brock, the fourth and fifth Dodger hits of the night. But Sax hit right back to the mound, Gooden fielding the ball and throwing to third for the force-out. Valenzuela showed the bunt, then pulled back and bounced to short for another force play. Duncan hit the first pitch to Paciorek.

Ray Knight’s error on Marshall’s grounder to third gave the Dodgers a baserunner in the ninth, but Guerrero was called out on strikes, and Marshall was gunned down at second for a double play that sent the game into extra innings.

In the 10th, Gooden was lifted for pinch-hitter Hernandez. Batting .333 in his career against Valenzuela, Hernandez came to the plate with pinch-hitter Mookie Wilson aboard on Valenzuela’s third walk of the game. Wilson broke for second on a hit-and-run, but that backfired against the Mets when Hernandez grounded directly to Duncan at the bag for an easy double play, the Dodgers’ third of the night.

McDowell entered the game in relief of Gooden in the 10th. Madlock singled for his third hit of the game, but after a sacrifice and an intentional walk to Brock, pinch-hitter Terry Whitfield grounded into a double play.

In his previous start, Gooden wasn’t bad last Saturday in San Francisco, but he still lost, 3-2, to the Giants, ending a 14-game winning streak that started after he lost to Valenzuela May 25 in New York’s Shea Stadium.

He started out Friday as if he would give the Dodgers no quarter, striking out the first two batters, Duncan and Ken Landreaux.

He struck out Brock to end the third, then fanned the side--Landreaux, Marshall and Guerrero--in the fourth, the 29th time this season he’d struck out all three batters in an inning.

Brock went down again in the fifth, Valenzuela was out swinging in the sixth and Marshall became Gooden’s ninth victim in the seventh.

Until the seventh, the Dodgers’ only two hits off Gooden were by Madlock, an opposite-field single in the second and a chopper over the mound in the fifth.

With two out in the seventh, Gooden fell behind Guerrero in the count, 3 and 1, then came in with a fastball. Guerrero, whose only hits in 18 career at-bats against Gooden have been home runs, almost had another as he lined a double to left-center.

Gooden elected to pitch to Madlock, even after his first two pitches were balls, and wound up retiring him on a foul pop to Gary Carter at first.

Through the first six innings, Dodger scout Mike Brito clocked Gooden’s fastest pitch, a fastball to Landreaux, at 95 m.p.h.

“They talk about his fastball,” Brito said, “but his curveball is just as tough as his fastball, maybe worse.

“His curve drops so quick, it has such a quick rotation, there’s no way you can hit that pitch. The curveball reminds me of a right-handed Koufax.”

The Mets, who scored 29 runs in a three-game sweep of the Padres in San Diego, wasted their best chance to score in the second, when Carter and George Foster opened the inning with singles.

But Knight, batting .214 coming into the game, elected to swing at a 3-and-0 pitch and lifted a weak fly that Marshall caught in foul territory in right. Ronn Reynolds followed with a ground ball to Madlock, who stepped on third and threw to first for a double play.

In the fourth, after two walks by Valenzuela, his only base on balls in the first nine innings, Knight grounded to Madlock for another double play.

Gooden, who had three hits off Valenzuela, in their last encounter, had two more Friday. Carter, who singled to right against an exaggerated Dodger shift--Steve Sax was to the left of second--was the only other Met to have more than one hit against Valenzxuela, who received a standing ovation after pitching a six-hitter through nine.

Dodger Notes The Dodgers activated pitcher Alejandro Pena, who had been on the disabled list all season. Pena, who underwent surgery on his right shoulder just before the opening of spring training, will throw in a simulated game today. If all goes well, he’ll pitch in a regular game “whenever feasible,” according to a team statement. One Dodger official said he probably wouldn’t be used until after the Dodgers clinch the division title. The Dodgers play two doubleheaders in four nights next week, one in Atlanta, the other in Cincinnati, so it’s conceivable Pena could be used then . . . Enos Cabell of the Dodgers and Keith Hernandez of the Mets, both of whom testified Friday in Pittsburgh in the drug trafficking case of Philadelphia caterer Curtis Strong, flew back to Los Angeles and arrived at the ballpark in the fifth inning. Cabell will return to Pittsburgh to give additional testimony Monday. Dodger publicist Steve Brener announced that Cabell would have no comment . . . Today’s game, which begins at 12:20 p.m., will be televised nationally by NBC (Channel 4). Jerry Reuss (12-9) will pitch for the Dodgers against the Mets’ Ed Lynch (10-7).