Niedenfuer Keeps Clark in the Park : Slugger Merely Singles; Dodgers Beat Cardinals

If a city could push the erase button on its video recorders and wipe out all memory of Jack Clark, this is the way it would want to replay a certain day in October.

Clark, the most celebrated villain to hit Hollywood since Darth Vader, won his duel with Tom Niedenfuer again, but this time the damage was not fatal, just frightening.

And while Niedenfuer lost the battle, the Dodgers won the game as Niedenfuer pitched out of a bases-loaded jam in the seventh inning, and struck out Tito Landrum with Clark on third as the potential tying run in the eighth.

Ken Howell then survived a tense ninth to polish off last season’s National League champions, the St. Louis Cardinals, 3-2, before an excited Dodger Stadium crowd of 39,495 that witnessed the Dodgers’ sixth straight win.

“The way it turned out, the first game back, the bases loaded (in the seventh), Clark up (in the eighth), you guys and the announcers must have had some fun,” said Mike Marshall, who hit a league-leading seventh home run off Cardinal ace John Tudor for two runs after Mariano Duncan stole his way around for the first run.

“It was a dream come true,” Marshall added, “for Vin Scully.”

Jerry Reuss had extended Dodger pitchers’ string of consecutive scoreless innings to 26 with six shutout innings on two hits before the Cardinals scored on three straight singles to knock him out in the seventh.

That’s when Niedenfuer entered. He struck out Terry Pendleton, then walked Tommy Herr to load the bases.

The next batter was Andy Van Slyke, the Cardinal who probably would have hit had Niedenfuer walked Clark in the deciding game of last season’s National League championship series.

Catcher Alex Trevino raced back to the screen and grabbed Van Slyke’s pop-up just above the overhang on the dugout boxes for the second out. Pinch-hitter Jerry White then popped out.

In the eighth with two out, Niedenfuer walked Willie McGee on a full count. Up came Clark, the man whose home run off Niedenfuer ended the Dodgers’ 1985 season and put the Cardinals in the World Series.

“This is 1986,” Niedenfuer said. “Time to move on.”

Clark took a ball, then took an enormous cut at the next pitch and missed. He worked the count to 2-and-2, fouled a pitch, then lined a fastball to right field for a single.

Marshall fielded the ball on one hop, but instead of throwing to second, he threw over the head of shortstop Duncan. The ball sailed past third baseman Dave Anderson and into the Dodger dugout. McGee scored to make it 3-2, and Clark wound up on third.

“He’s not going to throw all curveballs and changeups,” Clark said of Niedenfuer. “You’re going to get one fastball each time up.

“That’s what I like about him. He’ll challenge you.

“I was going to try and tie the game up. That’s what I’m paid for. I wanted to get my three swings.”

Said Niedenfuer: “At least, it stayed in the ballpark.”

Niedenfuer then went to a 3-and-0 count on Landrum but came back to strike him out swinging.

Howell retired the first two batters in the ninth, then gave up singles to Mike Lavalliere and pinch-hitter Jose Oquendo.

The game ended in controversy as first-base umpire Greg Bonin called out Vince Coleman on a close play at first, ruling that Steve Sax’s flip throw after Coleman’s chopper had beaten St. Louis’ fastest man.

The Cardinals, who opened 7-1, have lost 11 of their last 12.

“We’re just not doing the things we’re capable of doing,” said Tudor, who pitched four innings, allowing four hits and two walks, before his shoulder stiffened. “The way we’re playing, we don’t deserve to win.”

The way the Dodgers are playing, Dodger Vice President Al Campanis was forecasting another division championship, even though the Dodgers still are a game under .500 and five games behind first-place Houston.

“I think we can win,” Campanis said even before Friday’s final out had been recorded, “and you remember the last time I said that.”

That was last July, when the Dodgers were still 3 1/2 games behind the San Diego Padres but had just acquired Enos Cabell and Len Matuszek in trades.

The Dodgers scored all of their runs in the second, an inning that began with a single by Reuss. Duncan forced Reuss but stole second and third on successive pitches and scored on Sax’s sacrifice fly. Duncan, the league’s leading base-stealer, has 13 stolen bases, though he was caught by catcher Mike Heath in the fifth.

Cabell, who came into the game batting .121, followed with a single, and Marshall then hit a Tudor fastball into the left-field bullpen.