Hershiser Gets a Big Win, 7-1, After Big Scare

For just a brief moment, Orel Hershiser let the anxiety and fear and pain reveal itself. His eyes filled with tears, his voice deserted him and he walked away from the crowd of reporters surrounding his cubicle Tuesday night in the visitors’ clubhouse at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

The pressures of a pennant race? Hardly. That was something Hershiser could control, as he demonstrated with ruthless efficiency in the Dodgers’ 7-1 win over the Padres that reduced Los Angeles’ magic number in the National League West to 12 with 18 games left to play.

To know the emotions that overcame Hershiser afterward, you didn’t have to be a baseball player. You needed only to be a parent.

The day before, on Hershiser’s 27th birthday, he was playing on his hotel bed with his 10-month-old son, Orel Leonard (Quinton) Hershiser V. Hershiser reached down off the bed to pick up a toy.

“Quinton was so excited,” Hershiser said, “that he followed me onto the floor.”

When Quinton fell, he fractured his collarbone. “Babies usually bounce,” Hershiser said. “He broke.”

And though the child was OK after doctors placed him in a brace, Hershiser allowed that it weighed heavily on his mind.

“He’s just my pride and joy,” Hershiser said, his voice breaking again. “A first child, a first injury--it’s hard to look at the X-rays of your own 10-month-old child and have doctors tell you that was one of the earliest broken bones they’ve ever seen.”

Quinton is home now, Hershiser said, and doing “great.”

On the field, at least, his father is doing just fine, too. Helped by the Dodgers’ four double plays, a season high for a club that leads the league in errors with 147, Hershiser won his eighth straight decision to run his record to 16-3.

Hershiser gave up three hits, including Graig Nettles’ RBI double, in the first, then faced the minimum 21 batters in the next seven innings. He recorded 20 outs on ground balls and struck out five as the Padres didn’t have a fly-ball out the entire game.

“That first inning really helped me,” said Hershiser, whose troubles mounted when umpire Joe West ruled that first baseman Greg Brock pulled his foot off the bag too soon on Garry Templeton’s infield hit in his haste to throw to third to catch Tim Flannery.

“To have a tough situation right away made me think about baseball,” said Hershiser, who struck out Terry Kennedy and Steve Garvey to end the threat. “And the biggest aspect of the game was the team scoring some runs for me. That relaxed me, and allowed me to concentrate on my pitching.”

While Hershiser kept alive an outside chance of winning 20 games this season, Padre starter Andy Hawkins remained fixed at 17, a victim once again of nonsupport. In his last three starts, the Padres have scored a total of two runs for him.

Brock’s career-high 21st home run touched off a string of four straight hits in the second inning, when the Dodgers took a 4-1 lead.

Len Matuszek, who has three home runs and seven RBIs in 10 games while filling in for the injured Pedro Guerrero, singled to break a 1-1 tie, then scored the final run of the inning on a suicide squeeze botched by both teams.

With Matuszek breaking from third, Hershiser missed a two-strike bunt attempt. Padre catcher Kennedy charged down the line to tag out Matuszek, only to have the ball pop out of his glove as Matuszek scored.

“If I had waited for one more step, I might have been able to run right by him (Kennedy),” Matuszek said. “I just tried to wait until I thought he was going fast, and a little bit out of control.”

That was the low point of a long night for Kennedy, who grounded into two double plays, struck out, bounced out for the game’s final out and was booed at every juncture.

“I just screwed it up,” Kennedy said of the bunt play. “I just didn’t have the ball in my glove and when I went to tag him, he just knocked it out.

“Sure it’s embarrassing. The whole night was embarrassing, but I’ve had worse.

“You’re only as good as your last at-bat and last play--that’s what they (the fans) believe, so I guess they had the right to boo me.”

The Dodger lead remained at 7 1/2 games over Cincinnati, which won its third straight Tuesday.

“This was a big game for us,” said Hershiser, after the Dodgers avoided losing three straight, something they’ve done just three times this season.

“We don’t want to hit a long losing streak, you want a positive attitude going into the playoffs. . . . And there’s no better time for our defense to get hot than when we’re going into the playoffs.”

Dodger Notes

Len Matuszek said the Dodgers are sending him to winter ball to learn how to play third base. Matuszek, who came up as a first baseman in the Philadelphia organization, said that the Phillies tried converting him to third one season but that he hurt his elbow and never played the position more than once a week. Matuszek will play for Licey in the Dominican Republic this winter. . . . Pedro Guerrero missed his 12th game with a sprained left wrist, and Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda said there’s no reason to believe that Guerrero will be back in the lineup soon. . . . Neither team took batting practice before the game because of late-afternoon rain showers. . . . Lasorda laughed at a published report saying that the Atlanta Braves had offered him a $7 million, seven-year contract to manage the team. “I don’t know anything about it,” Lasorda said. “Nobody ever approached me. I have a year left on my contract. I’ve been with the Dodgers for 36 years, and I love my job very much. I hope and pray that I work here for the rest of my life. If someone came up to me and said they’d like for me to work for them, only one person would make that decision.” “Jo,” someone guessed, referring to Lasorda’s wife. “Peter,” Lasorda said, referring to Dodger owner Peter O’Malley. . . . Steve Sax’s seventh-inning infield hit extended his hitting streak to 13 games, his longest streak since he hit in 14 straight in 1983. Sax is batting .417 (20 for 48) during the streak and has raised his average to .279 from a season-low .220 on June 28. . . . Reggie Williams’ single off Roy Lee Jackson in the ninth was the Dodger rookie’s first big-league hit in four at-bats. . . . Carmelo Martinez’s bunt single off Orel Hershiser was his second successful bunt in two nights.

BB N.L. WEST RACE AT A GLANCE

W L Pct. GB Los Angeles 85 59 .590 -- Cincinnati 77 66 .538 7 1/2 REMAINING GAMES

LOS ANGELES (18)--Home (12): Sept. 18, 19, Houston; 27, 28, 29, San Francisco; 30, Oct. 1, San Diego; 2, 3, Atlanta; 4, 5, 6, Cincinnati. Away (6): Sept. 20, 21, 22, San Francisco; 23, 24, 25, Houston.

CINCINNATI (19)--Home (7): Sept. 24, 25, 26, Atlanta; 27, 28, 29, Houston. Away (12): Sept. 18, 19, Atlanta; 20, 21, 22, Houston; 30, Oct. 1, San Francisco; 2, 3, San Diego; 4, 5, 6, Los Angeles.EB