Coleman Rolled Over, Dodgers Rolled Under : A Nine-Run Second Inning Is More Than Cardinals Need in a 12-2 Rout

ST. LOUIS--Whatever else happened to the Dodgers Sunday night--and just about everything bad that could did in a 12-2 loss to the Cardinals here--they still had a better night than Cardinal rookie Vince Coleman, who nearly disappeared under a runaway tarp in a frightening pregame accident.

Coleman was badly bruised from left ankle to thigh when he became trapped under the tarpaulin’s aluminum casing. It could have been much worse, perhaps career-threatening.

The Dodgers were merely steam rolled by the Cardinals’ Big Bang second inning, when the Cardinals scored nine runs in what was really a series of little bangs--eight St. Louis singles--and a couple of Dodger blunders.

For the Dodgers, it couldn’t have been much worse, and was most definitely threatening to their chances of winning a National League playoff series that is now tied at two games apiece. They’ll send Fernando Valenzuela, who has won one more playoff game this season than Jerry Reuss has won in the last 10, this afternoon against Bob Forsch of the Cardinals in Game 5 of the best-of-seven series.

“That’s the first laugher we’ve had in a long time,” said Cardinal Manager Whitey Herzog, after sorrow turned first to relief over Coleman, then chuckles over the rug shampoo they gave the Dodgers.

“Baseball’s a funny game. We played for three runs in that inning, tried to squeeze in the third run, and ended up with nine runs.”

Reuss, who never has won in the playoffs, did nothing to reverse his postseason misfortunes when he failed to field John Tudor’s squeeze bunt cleanly in the killer second. His playoff record now stands at 0-7, with an earned run average of 6.68.

“I want to know whether Whitey still believes we’re living in bleep,” said Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda, who literally uttered “bleep” rather than forcing media censors around the country to blue-pencil his remarks.

“What you read I say and what I say are two different things,” said Herzog. “What I said was that the Dodgers were hot.”

Cardinal outfielder Andy Van Slyke, who blushed at using such adjectives, put it another way.

“I wouldn’t say the Dodgers were living in it,” he said. “It was more like we were playing in it.”

They’re playing in much grander style now, with a part-time model as well as part-time player, Tito Landrum, the taste-setter Sunday.

Landrum, a last-minute stand-in for Coleman, had four hits Sunday. Two of those hits came in the second, when he matched a playoff record for most hits in an inning set just two batters before by teammate Jack Clark.

“We were joking before the game that Tito would probably get about four knocks and drive in three or four runs,” said Van Slyke, who normally platoons in right field with Landrum, and wears a T-shirt that pictures a two-headed creature called “Tanto Vanlanstrum.”

The T-shirt, Van Slyke said, was Landrum’s idea. “He’s such a publicity hound.”

Landrum bounces back and forth from being expendable--Herzog has traded him twice--to being indispensable. In the 1983 American League playoffs, he hit a 10th-inning home run that put the Baltimore Orioles in the World Series.

He said the short notice actually helped him Sunday.

“I had no jitters, no feeling of anxiety,” Landrum said. “I was just relaxed. A strange feeling, knowing the circumstances I was up against.”

The Dodgers were up against John Tudor, a Game 1 loser to Valenzuela but perfect until he walked Steve Yeager with two out in the fifth inning. He still had a no-hitter until Steve Sax led off the sixth with a ground-ball double down the third-base line. And he still had a shutout until Bill Madlock homered to open the seventh.

“No game is an easy game, but let’s just say tonight’s was relaxing,” Tudor said.

The Cardinals could have taken the rest of the night off after the second, which began when Clark lined an opposite-field single to right. Cesar Cedeno then grounded a ball just two steps to the left of third baseman Madlock, but it went under his glove for a single.

Landrum then singled just out of the reach of shortstop Mariano Duncan, scoring Clark with the Cardinals’ first run. Terry Pendleton’s ground ball scored Cedeno for the second run, and Reuss then walked catcher Tom Nieto, bringing up Tudor.

His bunt went right back to Reuss, who missed it, allowing Landrum to score, and the rout was on. Duncan failed to backhand Ozzie Smith’s one-hopper into the hole, and when Tommy Herr followed with another single, Lasorda lifted Reuss.

Rick Honeycutt came in and gave up a single, walk, single and single. Bobby Castillo finally came in and struck out the Cardinals’ 14th batter, Nieto, in the biggest inning the Cardinals have had this season.

For the Dodgers, it was the most embarrassing since the Pittsburgh Pirates, of all teams, hit a nine-spot in a 16-2 romp in May, and it was all so preventable.

“Cedeno hit a ball that probably should have been handled by Madlock,” Herr said. “That opened the doors to a big inning.

“Then they muffed that squeeze bunt, and Duncan didn’t make the play on Ozzie’s ball in the hole. Another day, and we don’t get any runs in that inning.

“But as much pressure as we’ve been playing under the last two or three months, it was nice to have an easy one.”

And it was nicer, still, to learn that Coleman would be OK.

“It was a situation where we were more concerned that we’d have Vince not for tonight’s game, but for the next five or 10 years,” Herr said.