Game 6 Throws Together Two Opposites : Dodgers’ Orel Hershiser Is Enjoying His Moment in Sun

Last week, when Orel Hershiser was asked to name the biggest game in which he had ever pitched, he scrunched his face for a moment, then said:

“The no-hitter I threw against Ball State when I was at Bowling Green.”

That game passed so unnoticed that even Hershiser said later that he wasn’t sure who the opponent was. So much for fading memories.

Hershiser shouldn’t have that problem today in Game 6 of the National League playoffs, when he takes the mound in Dodger Stadium for the biggest game of his young life, and what the Dodgers hope will not be their last game of the 1985 season.

With the Dodgers one game away from being eliminated by St. Louis, which leads, 3 games to 2, Hershiser will face Joaquin Andujar of the Cardinals in a rematch of Game 2.

The Dodgers won that one, 8-2, just as they have won every time Hershiser has been involved in a decision at home this season--a dozen games in all.

But perhaps for the first time this season, the Dodgers--who never really were challenged once they shot past the San Diego Padres in July on their way to the Western Division title--are faced with a game they must win.

The Cardinals, meanwhile, went out every night in the last six weeks knowing they had to fight off the Mets and Expos.

“If that series against the Mets the last week of the season wasn’t played at playoff intensity, then I don’t know what was,” said Cardinal first baseman Jack Clark.

But if the pressure of the moment is affecting Hershiser, he is doing a masterly job of concealing it. Even though he is encountering media throngs for the first time, Hershiser has worked the crowd at interview sessions like Phil Donahue.

“Have I given you any good copy yet?” Hershiser asked at one session.

At one point, asked about Andujar, Hershiser quipped: “I don’t want to speak for Joaquin. I understand he’s not saying much.”

Clearly, he loves the attention, as he is the first to acknowledge.

“This is fun,” he said. “How many people ever get to experience this?”

He doesn’t even mind that Cardinal Manager Whitey Herzog is unable to get his name right.

Herzog pronounces it Her-hiser. Once he called him Dorrell. “No, that’s me,” Herzog remembered.

Earlier in the season, Herzog had poked fun at Hershiser for naming his son Orel V. “My name’s Dorrell, but I didn’t call any of my kids Dorrell,” Herzog said, laughing.

Hershiser’s tongue-in-cheek reaction: “Tell Whitey to get a haircut.”

Herzog, of course, may be the last man in America wearing a crewcut.

The Dodgers, on the razor’s edge of elimination, are hardly in a position to scoff at Herzog’s coiffure.

They were all but scalped in St. Louis, where they scored just six runs in three games and did not lead once in 27 innings, falling behind, 4-0, 9-0, and 2-0, respectively, before the third inning of each game.

The Cardinals won the last two games without their leadoff man, Vince Coleman, the league’s leading base-stealer. According to Cardinal publicist Jim Toomey, Coleman was still limping when the team arrived in Los Angeles. His status for today is uncertain. If he doesn’t play , Andy Van Slyke will be in right field and either Tito Landrum or Cesar Cedeno in left field.

The Dodger leadoff man, Mariano Duncan, missed Game 3 with a bruised left knee but has only one hit in 13 at-bats in the games in which he has played. Duncan hasn’t gotten the ball out of the infield in the last two games.

Pedro Guerrero, who was given 4 intentional walks in his first 10 playoff at-bats, swapped spots in the batting order with Bill Madlock in Manager Tom Lasorda’s attempt to force the Cardinals to pitch to Guerrero.

It worked, but Guerrero didn’t hit in St. Louis, managing just two hits in 11 at-bats, plus a couple of deep flies that were swallowed up by Busch Stadium’s expansive dimensions. Certainly no one expected Ozzie Smith to have more home runs than the sore-wristed Guerrero, who hasn’t hit one out since Sept. 28.

Greg Brock hasn’t hit much anywhere. His home run in Game 2 off Andujar is his only hit so far. Brock, who finished the regular season with just 19 hits in his last 87 at-bats, probably has not been helped by being jerked in and out of the lineup since Enos Cabell began playing against left-handers. Cabell, too, has just one hit.

The Cardinals are in a position to close out the Dodgers because of their bullpen, the same reason many people had picked St. Louis to be an also-ran in the spring.

The bullpen by committee, as the Cardinal relievers like to call themselves, pitched 10 innings and yielded just one run to the Dodgers in the three games in St. Louis. Overall, they have allowed three earned runs in 16 innings for an earned-run average of 1.62.

Todd Worrell, who was pitching for the Bible Institute of Los Angeles a few years ago, has been likened to such dominant relievers as Goose Gossage and Lee Smith.

Just as it has done for the last 13 league playoff games dating back to Game 1 in 1983, the home team has won. The Dodgers hope that form will hold.

Now, the arithmetic is simple.

“We have to go to our park and win two,” Dodger second baseman Steve Sax said. “And first, we have to win one.”

HERSHISER VS.ANDUJAR (19-3, 1-0) (21-12, 0-1) G 36 G 38 IP 239.2 IP 269.2 H 179 H 265 R 72 R 113 BB 68 BB 82 SO 157 SO 112 ERA 2.03 ERA 3.40