Marshall’s 2-Run Homer Helps Dodgers Put an End to Two Losing Streaks, 6-5

The Cardinals added another bizarre twist to Tom Niedenfuer’s private nightmare Tuesday night.

But Mike Marshall brought relief to what could have been the Dodgers’ longest night with a two-run home run off St. Louis reliever Ken Dayley in the 13th inning that gave the Dodgers a 6-5 win over St. Louis, ending a four-game losing streak.

Rick Honeycutt, originally scheduled to start Tuesday’s game, was scratched because of a tight shoulder. But he came out of the bullpen for the win, the Dodgers’ first in seven extra-inning games.

Honeycutt, the fifth Dodger pitcher used by Manager Tom Lasorda, worked the last 1 innings to end the marathon affair that spanned nearly five hours because of two rain delays.

He had to survive Jack Clark’s two-out single and a bad-hop RBI double by Andy Van Slyke to do it, finally retiring pinch-hitter Tom Lawless on a ground ball to end it.

Marshall’s 400-foot home run, his league-leading eighth of the season, followed a one-out single by Ken Landreaux.

“We haven’t been winning these games,” Marshall said. “Somewhere along the line we’ve ended up losing. Even when we’ve battled back, we’ve lost.

“Tonight, we didn’t. And even though it’s just one game, it has to turn for us. And we didn’t give up. There were a lot of times in this game we could have figured it was just one of those nights.”

Just when it appeared that Niedenfuer had extracted a measure of revenge in the most implausible fashion--he hit a two-out single in the 12th and scored on Dave Anderson’s double to give the Dodgers a 4-3 lead--the Cardinals answered back with a stunner of their own.

Pinch-hitter Jerry White, who had spent the last two seasons in Japan playing for the Yokohama Taiyu Whales, lined a Niedenfuer fastball over the right-field wall in the bottom of the 12th, re-tying the score.

White, who had signed a Triple-A contract with the Cardinals last winter, then made the club during spring training, had not hit a big league home run since 1982, when he hit two. The 33-year-old outfielder, who came into the game batting .067 and did not have an RBI, had 20 career home runs in seven seasons with the Expos and Cubs.

Niedenfuer, who had one previous hit and run scored in five seasons in the big leagues, had lined a two-out single off Dayley and circled the bases on Anderson’s double.

That rare excursion took something out of the Dodger reliever.

“I was dead,” he said. “When I went out there the next inning, my mouth was so dry that after the first out, I had to ask Enos Cabell for a piece of gum.”

Niedenfuer started his third inning of work by retiring Terry Pendleton on an infield tapper but then threw a high fastball to White, who hit it over the 383-foot sign in right.

The home run was the fourth allowed by Niedenfuer in 20 innings this season, after he’d given up just six in 106 innings in 1985.

“Giving up home runs to guys 180 pounds and less is getting a little ridiculous,” said Niedenfuer, who has now been taken deep by three little guys--Rafael Ramirez, Omar Moreno and the 5-11, 175-pound White--and Leon (Bull) Durham of the Cubs.

But Marshall’s home run gave Niedenfuer the chance to gloat a little bit about his hit.

“My bat and my legs,” he said, laughing. “I hit a high fastball.

“I guess even when I’m pitching good, I’m not getting the breaks. I pitched well till I ran out of gas. But we won, and that’s all that matters.”

Honeycutt said he could have started in an emergency, but the emergency didn’t come until nearly midnight in St. Louis.

“I only had to go 1 for the win,” he said. “And you know, I felt pretty good.”

Marshall, who was in right field when White’s ball sailed over his head, felt badly for Niedenfuer at that moment.

“What can you say? It was just . . . I guess you think back to the playoffs and everything, but he (Niedenfuer) pitched great,” Marshall said. “It was just one pitch.

“Tom Niedenfuer and Ken Howell are overworked right now. We’ve been in a lot of close games, extra-inning games, and it’s tough on those guys.”

A win made it a little easier Tuesday.

“We did come back, no ifs ands or buts,” Lasorda said. “This one was a good sign, because everybody contributed so much.”

Dodger Notes

Pedro Guerrero is scheduled to have the hinge brace on his left leg shortened by Dr. Frank Jobe Thursday, six weeks after rupturing his patellar tendon in a spring-training sliding mishap. Dodger therapist Pat Screnar said the brace, which runs from Guerrero’s ankle to his upper thigh, probably will be shortened by about three inches on each end. For the next several weeks, Guerrero will continue to work on increasing the motion in his leg, Screnar said. At the moment, Guerrero, whose daily routine consists of about 90 minutes of lifting light weights and isometric exercises, is able to bend his knee at about a 50-degree angle. He also is on a program of lifting weights for his upper body, and has his leg treated with electrical stimulation and ice. “So far he’s doing everything we want him to,” Screnar said. “I think it’s best that he’s with us (on the road). He’s part of the organization and what better way to keep tabs on his rehabilitation? He wanted it that way and I agree with him.”

The Dodgers are quite encouraged with the progress made by Alejandro Pena, who threw five innings of shutout ball Monday for Vero Beach in a Class A game against Clearwater. Pena gave up a hit, walked one and struck out five. Screnar said he spoke on Tuesday to Vero Beach trainer Rob Giesecke, who reported that Pena “had no pain, no problem whatsoever.” Pena is scheduled to make one more start, probably Saturday, before the Dodgers decide what their next move will be.

Steve Sax was the only Dodger besides Mike Marshall in Tuesday’s starting lineup to be in double figures in runs batted in. Marshall has 23 and Sax 11. Next highest was leadoff man Mariano Duncan, with eight. . . . Dodger publicist Toby Zwikel complained to Cardinal management about the Busch Stadium organist playing during an inning, despite a league directive which supposedly limits organ music to between innings and pitching changes. Particularly irksome to Zwikel were the riffs that imitated taunting laughter.