A Trying April Ends in Success for Dodgers, 4-0

The Dodgers closed out April, a month that could not have started more cruelly than it did, in a way that could make one momentarily forget that Pedro Guerrero is in a knee brace.

Bob Welch pitched a six-hit shutout, Mike Marshall, Franklin Stubbs and Steve Sax hit home runs and the Dodgers did not make an error in a 4-0 win over the Chicago Cubs Wednesday night, giving the Dodgers their fourth straight win before a crowd of 35,023 at Dodger Stadium.

At 10-13, the Dodgers still are under .500 and 5 1/2 games behind the first-place Houston Astros in the National League West.

But no one expects the Astros to run away from the pack. And the Cincinnati Reds, expected to be the Dodgers’ prime challenger in the West, are in last place, 7 1/2 games behind, after losing their fifth game in a row.

“We’ll be there,” Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda said. “It takes time. We just have to keep playing good ball, daring ball, aggressive ball.

“These guys didn’t forget how to hit. They know how to play. These are the same guys who brought us there last season. They’ll be there.”

Welch, who wasn’t there last April because of a bad elbow, is off to the best start of his career after his third win, third complete game, and second shutout.

With six strikeouts Wednesday, Welch took over the league lead from Fernando Valenzuela with 37 strikeouts in 43 innings. And his earned-run average dropped to 1.42, the best on the staff.

“We’ve always said if this guy was healthy from the beginning, there’s no telling what he can do,” Lasorda said.

“Last year he was injured for two months, but what he did for this club you can’t measure.”

Welch gave Lasorda a scare in the Cub sixth, when Bob Dernier’s one-hop smash banged into Welch’s left ankle.

“Seems like I get hurt more when I’m away from throwing the ball,” said Welch, who was falling to the right of the mound when struck by Dernier’s ball.

“You feel it. I couldn’t bounce around the mound too well. But I felt all right landing. As long as I didn’t step in the wrong spot, I was OK.”

Welch’s only other rough spot came in the second, when Jerry Mumphrey and Jody Davis singled, then moved up a base on Gary Matthews’ drive to the warning track in right.

But Stubbs got a good jump on Shawon Dunston’s liner to left for the second out, then threw out Mumphrey easily at the plate.

“That was a great lift for me as a pitcher,” Welch said. “And to our team, it seems like some things are changing a little bit.

“Then Marshall hits the home run, we get a couple of other big hits, and we’re able to hold them.”

Marshall’s home run came in the fourth, after Greg Brock, who was 7 for 41 up to that point, lined a two-out single through the box off Cub starter Dennis Eckersley.

Eckersley had recorded five of his first six outs on strikes and wound up with nine strikeouts in seven innings. Twice he got Marshall on strikes.

This time, however, Marshall got him, driving a ball deep into the right-center field pavilion for his sixth home run of the season. It also gave him 17 RBIs for the month on just 20 hits.

The Dodgers are 5-1 in games in which Marshall has homered, which is no coincidence.

“It’s important for me to drive in runs,” he said. “With our pitching, if we hit a couple of home runs and score some runs early, we’ve got a real good chance of winning, because our pitching can shut them down.

“If we get a couple-run lead early, it puts the opposition at a real disadvantage early.”

Stubbs came into the game with just two hits in his last 28 at-bats and a .163 average. He struck out his first two times against Eckersley, giving him 25 strikeouts in his last 49 at-bats.

But in the seventh, he launched a 1-and-2 pitch into the right-field seats for his first home run since his three-homer weekend against the San Francisco Giants more than two weeks ago.

“I didn’t have to stay with Stubbs out of necessity,” said Lasorda, when asked about the patience he has exhibited with the man the Dodgers recalled to replace Guerrero.

“I believe in Stubbs. I believe in his talents. I’m not playing him out of necessity but because he’s the best one qualified for the job.”

Lasorda may not have had any doubts, but Stubbs admitted to a few.

“It’s going to get you down,” he said. “You wonder why you keep swinging at a certain pitch, and are just missing your pitch. But sooner or later, you knows things are going to click.”

At the moment, they couldn’t be going any better for Sax, who punctuated a team-leading .333 month with his first home run, a drive to left-center off Cub reliever George Frazier in the eighth.

Wisely, third-base coach Joe Amalfitano refrained from offering Sax his hand as he rounded the bases. Last season, Amalfitano gave Sax a high-five after a home run and wound up with a broken thumb.

“I just gave him the trigger,” Amalfitano said, pointing his finger like an imaginary gun. “The bench was yelling for me to look out.”

And for now, at least, things are not looking as grim as they had been for the Dodgers.

Dodger Notes Cesar Cedeno, whose triple broke a 3-3 tie in the Dodgers’ 5-4 win over Pittsburgh on Tuesday night, said he has lost nine pounds since being signed by the Dodgers. “I feel like I’m getting about as close as I can to being in playing shape,” Cedeno said. “It feels good to get a hit.” . . . This may come as a surprise, but second baseman Steve Sax has only one of the Dodgers’ 35 errors. The only Dodger regular without an error is right fielder Mike Marshall. . . . The Dodgers signed infielder Jim Anderson, who has played in the big leagues with the Angels, Seattle Mariners and Texas Rangers, to a Triple-A contract with Albuquerque.