Dodgers Fight Off Mets for 7-6 Win : Duncan Starts Melee in 6th--Marshall Ends Game in 9th

As the Dodger leadoff man, Mariano Duncan is supposed to start something, preferably a rally.

Failing at that, Duncan instead started a bench-clearing rumble Saturday afternoon before a crowd of 44,444 at Dodger Stadium, charging New York Mets pitcher Ed Lynch after striking out in the sixth inning.

It had all the violence of a Michael Jackson video--after some fancy dancing by the entire cast, Duncan was told to beat it in an ejection by plate umpire Bob Davidson. But it seemed to be an effective bit of group therapy for the suddenly aroused Dodgers, who came back from four runs down to defeat the Mets, 7-6, on Mike Marshall’s two-out single in the bottom of the ninth.

“Before the little ruckus, there was a very dead atmosphere in our dugout,” said Mike Scioscia, who had three hits, including an RBI double in the seventh, when the Dodgers scored three times to take a 6-4 lead.

“A tough loss the night before, a late game, we were dead,” Scioscia said. “It (the melee) did kind of leave us a wakeup call.”

Marshall, who had hit his 18th home run off Lynch one out after Duncan’s ejection, said his personal alarm already had gone off.

“It didn’t affect me,” he said. “It’s something to write about, and I know the fans enjoyed it, but you still have to hit and throw the baseball.”

Marshall said he had another incentive after Darryl Strawberry’s fourth hit of the afternoon, a home run off reliever Tom Niedenfuer that sailed over the right fielder’s head, had tied the score at 6-6 in the top of the ninth.

“I didn’t want to play anymore,” Marshall said. “I was tired.”

The Dodgers, who had failed to score in a 2-0 loss in 13 innings to the Mets the night before, came out dragging Saturday, starter Jerry Reuss spotting New York a 4-0 lead, with Duncan’s throwing error in the first inning leading to two of the runs.

Greg Brock’s two-run homer, his second home run in three games and 18th of the season, started the Dodgers back in the fifth.

“That got us off the floor,” Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda said.

An inning later, Duncan, with two hits in his last 38 times at bat, took center stage. After striking out for the 92nd time this season--a total exceeded only by the power-hitting Marshall on the Dodgers--Duncan sprinted toward the mound for Lynch, five inches taller and nearly 50 pounds heavier than the 6-foot, 160-pound Dodger shortstop.

“I could feel it building earlier,” Met third baseman Ray Knight said. “Duncan had told Ed to come out and start throwing the ball, and (Pedro) Guerrero yelled the same thing at him when he struck out (in the fifth).

“When Ed finally struck out Duncan, he said, ‘Take that.’ Duncan said something back, and Ed finally said to come on out.”

As even a novice lip-reader watching the game on national TV could attest, Knight offered a sanitized version of the conversation between Lynch and Duncan.

Apparently, Lynch was talked out by the end of the game, because he was nowhere to be found when reporters arrived in the Met clubhouse. And Lasorda came out to keep Duncan company while he talked to reporters in the Dodger clubhouse.

“He say something bad, really bad,” Duncan said. “I don’t want you to put anything bad in the paper.”

Duncan said that he was muttering to himself as he departed the batter’s box.

“I wasn’t talking to him (Lynch),” Duncan said. “I don’t know why he was mad. He wanted me to go sit down. Then he told me to come out. I said, ‘OK, I come.’ I’m not scared of anybody.”

When both dugouts and bullpens emptied, Lasorda was concerned. “The only bad thing is, you can lose a key man,” he said. “You don’t want anyone to get hurt.”

And while looking, naturally, for Guerrero, Lasorda said he found himself standing next to Met prodigy Dwight Gooden.

“I said to him, ‘What are you doing out here?’ ” Lasorda said. “ ‘You have way too much ability for this stuff.’ ”

Marshall said that he, too, had his eyes on Guerrero, who was busy throwing looping rights from the outside of the scrum.

“Pete was kind of jumping around, looking for something to do,” Marshall said.

Guerrero admitted taking some verbal shots at Lynch earlier in the game. “I told him he didn’t have bleep,” said Guerrero, who two weeks earlier called Montreal pitcher Bill Gullickson “a big sissy” and labeled Lynch worse. “I told him to stop throwing all that junk.

“He told Mariano, after he bunted (in the fourth inning), to swing the bat. If he wants somebody to swing the bat, he should throw a fastball.”

When the trouble began, Steve Sax was in the bathroom just behind the Dodger dugout. “I heard there was a fight,” Sax said, “but you can only go so fast. I came running out with my pants half down.”

Scioscia said he was in the middle of the pack, getting knocked around “like a Ping-Pong ball.”

“I ended up next to Darryl Strawberry,” Scioscia said. “If I knew he was going to hit a home run to tie the game in the ninth, I might have started something to get him out of the game.”

The only casualty on either side apparently was Ron Perranoski, the Dodger pitching coach, who wound up with Band-Aids on four of his fingers. “I got spiked in the brawl,” he said. “I’m going to need four tetanus shots.”

Marshall’s home run, an opposite-field drive, was the booster shot that cut the Met lead to 4-3. Roger McDowell relieved Lynch in the seventh, and Bill Madlock singled off McDowell, stole second and scored on Scioscia’s double to tie the score.

Len Matuszek’s first pinch hit in 11 tries with the team gave the Dodgers the lead, then pinch-runner Reggie Williams scored all the way from first base on a bloop hit by Duncan’s replacement, Dave Anderson, making his first appearance since returning from Albuquerque.

But Niedenfuer, the loser the night before on Strawberry’s two-run double, couldn’t hold the lead, the Mets scoring once in the eighth on Len Dykstra’s pinch double and Wally Backman’s infield hit, and once in the ninth on Strawberry’s 23rd homer of the season.

But in the bottom of the ninth, Franklin Stubbs, the Dodgers’ hot prospect of ’84 who was sent back to Albuquerque for more seasoning in ‘85, had a pinch single off Terry Leach, the fifth Met pitcher.

“What difference does a year make?” Stubbs said, repeating a question. “Well, last year, it took me 12 at-bats to get a hit. This year, it only took two.”

Pinch-runner Jose Gonzalez then stole second, and after an intentional walk to Ken Landreaux, Marshall grounded a single through the hole at short.

With the win, the Dodgers moved another game ahead of the Reds and Padres, who both lost Saturday, and lead by 8 1/2 in the West.

“The Mets are battling for a pennant, we’re battling for a pennant,” Lasorda said. “These things happen on a baseball field with two teams really out to win in the heat of battle. There’s no animosity, no bad blood, they’re a good bunch of guys.”

That’s the nicest thing the Mets were called all day.

Dodger Notes Pedro Guerrero, who bruised his left wrist on the box-seat railing after giving futile chase to Darryl Strawberry’s foul fly in the fifth inning, was examined by Dr. Robert Chandler after the game, then sent to Centinela Hospital Medical Center for X-rays, which were negative. Team therapist Pat Screnar shoved a Times reporter who was at the fringe of a group around Chandler during his examination of Guerrero. It is club policy that the trainers’ room is open to the media after games, but Screnar accused the reporter of eavesdropping. “No secrets,” said Chandler, who offered no immediate diagnosis of Guerrero’s injury. “We’re waiting to see what it feels like after he ices it down. He was able to complete the game and was not complaining about a lot of pain.” . . . Alejandro Pena pitched in another simulated game Saturday, and pitching coach Ron Perranoski said there is a “strong possibility” that Pena will start a game next weekend at Cincinnat. . . . Enos Cabell, who must return to Pittsburgh to testify Monday in a drug-trafficking trial there, said: “There’s nothing you can do but tell the truth and hope they let you go home.” . . . Met first baseman Keith Hernandez, who completed his testimony Friday and admitted to heavy cocaine use, issued a statement Saturday that said he was “sorry if I caused any embarrassment to the Mets or St. Louis Cardinals and to baseball fans in general, particularly Mets fans.” Hernandez also said, “It’s a chapter in my life that’s closed, one I’m not proud of,” and called cocaine “a dead-end street. My advice to anybody out there is to stay away from drugs.” . . . Second baseman Steve Sax came out of the game in the ninth inning with a blister on the middle finger of his right hand. . . . Mike Scioscia’s on-base percentage of .412 is second highest in the league, behind only Pedro Guerrero’s .423. . . . Except for Len Matuszek (1 for 2, including Saturday’s RBI single), none of the Dodger pinch-hitters have fared well against New York: Terry Whitfield, who struck out as a pinch-hitter in the fifth, is hitless in 12 at-bats; Candy Maldonado is 1 for 15 (.067), and Bill Russell is 1 for 11 (.091). Matuszek said that during the brawl, he wound up next to pitcher Ed Lynch. “Somebody on our team tried to whale on him and got me instead,” Matuszek said. . . . Rookie Reggie Williams scored from first on Dave Anderson’s bloop single in the eighth due to some alert coaching by Joe Amalfitano, who waved Williams on as soon as he saw center fielder Darryl Strawberry overrun the ball. “He (Williams) helped make the play by never breaking stride,” Amalfitano said. “And it seemed like he put another gear in when I went running down the line.” . . . Manager Tom Lasorda, on Friday night’s pitching duel between Fernando Valenzuela and Dwight Gooden: “That was one of the greatest games I’ve seen in a long time. The fans left completely satisfied. They got to see what they came to see: two great pitchers performing up to their capabilities.” . . . Bill Madlock, who had four hits in that game, two off Gooden: “I’d never want to make my living hitting off either one of them, let me put it that way.” . . . Besides Valenzuela, only one other pitcher in the National League has gone 11 innings in a start this season--Joaquin Andujar of the Cardinals, who went 11 against the Padres July 26.