Valenzuela, Tudor to Pitch in NL Opener

A pair of left-handers--one who’s red-hot and the other who’s not--will be the starting pitchers tonight at Dodger Stadium in the opener of the National League playoffs.

John Tudor will start for the Eastern Division champion St. Louis Cardinals against Fernando Valenzuela of the Western Division champion Dodgers.

Tudor, 31, compiled a 21-8 record and a 1.93 earned- run average for the Cardinals along with a major league-leading total of 10 shutouts.

More impressively, Tudor won 20 of his last 21 decisions after starting the season 1-7. That one loss was to Valenzuela and the Dodgers, 3-0, on July 20. Tudor had a 1-2 record and a 2.57 ERA in 21 innings against Los Angeles this season.

Tudor’s ERA was second among starters in the majors--the Mets’ Dwight Gooden was 24-4 with a 1.53 ERA.

The 24-year-old Valenzuela was 17-10 with a 2.45 ERA, but he managed only one victory after Aug. 26. Valenzuela was 1-0 with a 1.59 ERA in 17 innings against the Cardinals this season.

The game begins at 5:30 p.m. The second game Thursday night, matching right-handers Joaquin Andujar of St. Louis and Orel Hershiser of Los Angeles, is scheduled to start at 5:35 p.m.

Meanwhile, rain is a distinct possibility. The weather forecast for Tuesday night and Wednesday called for “considerable cloudiness with a chance of showers and thundershowers . . . increasing to 40%.”

The teams are idle Friday before playing the third, fourth and fifth games of the best-of-seven series at St. Louis on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. If sixth and seventh games are necessary, they’ll be played at Dodger Stadium next Wednesday and Thursday.

Major league baseball went to divisional alignments along with playoff series in 1969. Until this year, the playoffs in both the NL and the American League were best-of-five series. Kansas City and Toronto squared off in the opener of the best-of-seven AL playoffs Tuesday night.

Tudor will be starting with only three days rest--he hurled a four-hitter last Saturday as the Cards beat the Chicago Cubs, 7-1, to clinch the NL East title. But that doesn’t figure to hurt him considering he was 7-0 while pitching with three days rest during the season.

While Valenzuela wasn’t at his best down the stretch and Hershiser won his last 11 decisions, Los Angeles Manager Tom Lasorda said he didn’t have a tough decision to make.

“I want to pitch Fernando first,” Lasorda said. “When the playoffs start, forget about all the records and stats. He’s been through this before.”

Tudor will be appearing in postseason play for the first time. Andujar was St. Louis’ post-season pitching ace when the Cardinals won the World Series three years ago, but he’s had a difficult time recently even though he finished the season with a 21-11 record and a 3.40 ERA.

Andujar dropped eight of his last 12 decisions and his ERA was a gaudy 2.31 on July 26.

Manager Whitey Herzog of the Cardinals called Andujar, the only pitcher in the majors to win at least 20 games in each of the last two seasons, the key player in the playoffs.

“If he pitches well, we’ve got a chance,” Herzog said. “I kept waiting for him down the stretch to pitch a pretty good game for us, a game . . . where he was in complete command. It didn’t happen.”

Conversely, Hershiser has been the Dodgers’ version of Tudor. The 27-year-old Los Angeles right-hander won his final 11 decisions to finish 19-3 with a 2.03 ERA. Also, Hershiser was 11-0 at Dodger Stadium this season.

The Dodgers won seven of the 12 games between the teams this season. Los Angeles had a .264 batting average and a 2.37 ERA in those 12 games while the Cards hit .230 and had a 2.81 ERA.

Overall, the Cards hit .265 to lead the NL while the Dodgers tied with Houston for second at .261.

Los Angeles had a team ERA of 2.97--the first time any team has had an ERA under 3.00 since 1981--while St. Louis tied for second in the NL with the New York Mets in team ERA at 3.11.