Relievers Save Day; Dodgers Win, 6-3

For the first time this season, Manager Tom Lasorda summoned something other than disappointment from the Dodger bullpen Thursday night.

Until then, placing a call to the bullpen had meant certain defeat for the Dodgers, who were 0-10 in games in which a reliever had appeared.

But after Orel Hershiser was forced to depart after five wild innings with a stiff back, Ken Howell and Tom Niedenfuer combined to hold off the Atlanta Braves, 6-3, before a crowd of 31,161 at Dodger Stadium.

For the first time in 17 games, the Dodgers also made it through a contest without making an error. Not coincidentally, they now have won two games in a row for the first time in 1986.

The Dodgers trail Houston and San Francisco by five games in the National League West after starting the day six back, which equaled their biggest deficit of 1985.

“We have pride in ourselves down there,” said Niedenfuer, who hadn’t pitched since giving up a game-winning hit to San Diego’s Graig Nettles eight days earlier.

Niedenfuer got the bullpen’s first save Thursday, striking out Claudell Washington on three pitches with runners on first and third in the eighth after pinch-hitter Ted Simmons’ single had made it 4-3.

“We believe we have a good bullpen. And that stat (0-10) makes no sense. Our five wins came in five complete games. And how do you save a tie game?”

Mike Marshall and Greg Brock had home runs, and Mariano Duncan had a two-run double to chase Atlanta ace Rick Mahler for the second time in four days. In the eighth, pinch-hitter Cesar Cedeno added a rare, two-run groundout off Atlanta reliever Gene Garber to account for the final Dodger runs.

Marshall’s home run was his fifth, tying him with Cincinnati’s Dave Parker for the league lead.

Before Wednesday, when he was in the midst of a 4-for-28 spinout, Marshall appeared to be struggling. Now with home runs in each of the last two days, he has surpassed his home run and RBI (12) totals from last April. And last season he hit 28 homers and drove in 95 runs.

“That’s where I think I’ve matured a little bit,” Marshall said. “A lot of people were worried about it, and I definitely was not happy with my production.

“But by no means was I down on myself. I came here every day optimistic that I could do the job. I’ve done it the last couple of years.

“A lot of people didn’t think I could handle the situation (Pedro Guerrero’s absence), but it’s a little premature. It’s such a long season.”

It was a short night for Hershiser, who walked three straight batters, including .091-hitting Ozzie Virgil, to force in a run in the first inning, the first time in memory that Hershiser had walked home a run.

In the second, he walked opposing pitcher Mahler and threw a wild pitch in the fifth, when the Braves scored their second run on a double by Washington and Dale Murphy’s single.

But Howell’s 2 innings and the four outs registered by Niedenfuer enabled Hershiser to even his record at 2-2.

“It wasn’t very pain-free,” Hershiser said. “The first inning I felt I didn’t have very good mechanics, which may have led to my back stiffness.

“Then my back got stiffer and stiffer and hurt more and more, for the first time all year.”

But then the bullpen came through, though the trend was in danger of continuing when Howell walked two batters in the eighth and Simmons followed with an RBI single that glanced off Niedenfuer’s foot.

In the bottom of the eighth, Cedeno came to the plate with runners on first and second. Garber was seemingly distracted by Marshall on second and threw a wild pitch, the runners advancing.

“Somebody must have stolen third on them recently,” Marshall said. “I wasn’t doing anything to cause any problems.”

Cedeno worked Garber to a full count, fouling off a number of pitches, then hit a chopper toward third. Marshall scored, and when Rafael Ramirez’s throw spun around first baseman Bob Horner, who had to tag Cedeno, Scioscia scored, too.

“It was a heckuva battle,” Cedeno said. “Things went our way. If I had hit it hard at the shortstop, the run probably would not have scored.”

Instead, the Dodgers got two.

“Mission accomplished,” Cedeno said.

Another thing the Dodgers accomplished was chasing Mahler, who was gone after five innings. No physical affliction was responsible for his exit, although he might have gotten a stiff neck watching the towering 400-foot drives hit by Marshall and Brock.

Both went to dead center field. Marshall’s, which came in the second inning, landed just inside the left flagpole. Brock’s, which came in the fourth, landed just outside the right.

Brock had come into the game with just four hits in his previous 26 at-bats.

Mahler, the ace of the Atlanta staff last season with 17 wins, had lost three of his first four starts. When the Dodgers chased him in the second inning last Sunday after just 1 innings, it was his earliest departure since July 20, 1982.

The home run ball has been his undoing so far this season. The right-hander has given up 6 in 18 innings.

After Brock’s homer, Mahler hit Scioscia with an 0-2 pitch and Franklin Stubbs ended an 0-for-18 string with a base hit, sending Scioscia to third.

Duncan followed by slicing an opposite-field double, scoring both runners.

The Dodgers went through seven innings without committing an error. Stubbs made a skidding catch of Ken Oberkfell’s drive in the fourth. In the sixth, Howell speared Oberkfell’s liner with his glove hand while making a barehand catch of his hat at the same time.

Dodger Notes

Bill Madlock, who had just returned to the lineup Wednesday after missing six games with a strained left hip muscle, lasted only five innings Thursday. He was replaced by Dave Anderson. . . . The Dodgers’ league-leading 29 errors in their first 16 games were almost double the number made by the Montreal Expos, who rank second with 16. . . . The Dodger pitching staff has six complete games, twice as many as any other team, and it also leads the league with 104 strikeouts. Bob Welch leads the league with 25 strikeouts. . . . Tony DeMarco, Fernando Valenzuela’s agent, said he was not concerned that Valenzuela threw a career-high 163 pitches Wednesday in the Dodgers’ 6-4 win over the Giants. “He said he felt fine,” said DeMarco, who met Valenzuela at the airport. “He knows what he’s doing. He has the heart of a lion.”