Powell Had Reason to Smile, but He Also Had Good One Not to

In the Dodger training room were two buckets of ice water.

Dennis Powell’s elbow was in one.

Tom Niedenfuer’s elbow was in the other.

They sat there eye-to-eye.

Niedenfuer wouldn’t smile. His head was in his chest. His 3-and-2 pitch to San Diego’s Graig Nettles in the ninth inning had just been hit for a game-winning RBI.

Niedenfuer let out a game-losing sigh.

Powell wouldn’t smile. He wanted to. He’d just pitched 8 innings, giving up two runs, the first when pitcher Dave Dravecky homered in the third inning. But that was it. In the fourth, the Padres had a runner on second with one out, and Powell got the necessary outs. In the eighth, the Padres had a runner on third with one out, and he again got the necessary outs.

“I’m smiling about it,” he said.

But he wasn’t really.

Not with Niedenfuer there.

The big smiles had come in the spring. Powell had been optioned to Albuquerque, and he said he didn’t figure to be back with the big club this season. But one day soon thereafter, Dodger publicist Steve Brener went looking for him in the minor league clubhouse.

Where was he?

Soon, he was found doing calisthenics on the minor league field.

Brener told him to see Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda.

Lasorda told Powell to take the major league field.

“I didn’t expect to be right up there so soon,” Powell said. “I was happy. He (Lasorda) said: ‘OK, you’ll get your chance now. Don’t let me down.’ I said: ‘You got it.’ ”

His big chance came Wednesday.

It was his first major league start as the replacement for Jerry Reuss.

The Padres didn’t have a clue what to expect.

San Diego Manager Steve Boros asked Garry Templeton. Templeton said: “Don’t know him.” He asked Jerry Royster. Royster said: “Don’t know him.” He asked Marvell Wynne. He knew him.

“I saw him in winter ball a few years back,” Wynne said.

Tony Gwynn chimed in: “I saw him pitch on TV. I saw him throw Jeff Leonard a low breaking ball, and he hit it for a homer.”

“Oh, I remember that,” Boros said.

Powell remembered.

That’s why he walked Kevin McReynolds in the ninth inning. There was one out. Score: 1-1.

“I didn’t want him (McReynolds) to be the man that beat me like my last appearance,” Powell said. “So I tried to be too fine.”

And he walked him.

Lasorda brought in Niedenfuer to face Steve Garvey. He got Garvey, intentionally walked Templeton, but didn’t get Nettles.

Lasorda, who looked like he’d just taken the L.A.-New York red-eye, wouldn’t smile.

But he did say: “Dennis pitched a very good ballgame.”

So he’s still in the rotation?

“He’ll be there the next time around,” Lasorda said.