Dodgers Beat Mets to Continue a Turn for the Better, 6-2

Just when it seems the Dodgers belong in your son’s Pony League rather than Charles Feeney’s National League, they do something like beat the New York Mets again, this time 6-2 at Dodger Stadium.

The victory gave the ever-so-unpredictable and wacky Dodgers their fourth consecutive win, perpetuating a season-long trend of playing very well or very badly. There seems to be no in-between.

Saturday, before a crowd of 39,429, the Dodgers chose excellence. Good thing, too, since starter Bob Welch, by his own account, began the game with not much of anything--no fastball, curve, split-finger or change-up. “But you can’t give in, you can’t give up,” he said.

So, he didn’t. Welch lasted 5 innings, allowed 2 runs and 10 hits and tap-danced himself out of several harrowing moments. The Mets, who have the best record in the majors at 22-9, had two runners on base in the first, second, third, fourth and sixth innings before Welch was mercifully pulled in favor of Ed Vande Berg, then Tom Niedenfuer, then Ken Howell. Unimpressed, the Mets put a pair of runners on base in the seventh and loaded the bases in the ninth.

A week ago, this would have meant runs, probably losses for the Dodgers. But lately, the Dodgers have handled this sort of thing with Cary Grant aplomb.

With the score tied, 2-2, in the sixth, Vande Berg came in with one out and promptly struck out Met starter Sid Fernandez and got pinch-hitter Mookie Wilson to ground into a fielder’s choice.

In the seventh, with Darryl Strawberry on second, Niedenfuer, who eventually got the win, struck out George Foster to end the inning.

And in the ninth, Howell walked the first two batters before squirming out of trouble. “I think I seem to be pitching real tough in real tough situations,” Howell said.

Howell, who made the ninth especially tough for himself, struck out two and also was assisted by shortstop Mariano Duncan, who made a diving stop of a Keith Hernandez grounder headed for center field. Instead of a run scoring or, at the very least, the bases being loaded with the tying run at the plate, the Dodgers got the out as Duncan flipped the ball to Steve Sax at second, nailing Wilson, who had walked. Hernandez, robbed of his fourth hit of the day, stood on first base, hands on hips, shaking his head. Howell struck out Strawberry to end the game.

“It was a heck of a play,” Howell said. “Outstanding.”

Said Duncan: “I’ll tell you, that’s a nice play. That’s what I’m thinking, ‘I better knock it down because the next hitter is Strawberry, and he’s very strong.’ ”

The Dodgers escaped; the Mets did not.

Fernandez (4-1) retired 10 of the first 11 batters he faced without yielding a hit, before giving up two runs in the fourth. First, the former Dodger was touched by a Bill Madlock single that appeared catchable by Met shortstop Howard Johnson. “If you get your glove on the ball,” Met Manager Davey Johnson said, “you should catch it.”

Mike Marshall followed with a single, and Cesar Cedeno walked. Catcher Alex Trevino, starting in place of Mike Scioscia and facing Fernandez for the first time in his career, hit a two-run single for his first two runs batted in of the season, after 24 at-bats. That gave the Dodgers a 2-1 lead.

The Mets tied the score in the sixth on an RBI grounder by Johnson that scored Foster. But in the eighth, the Dodgers scored four runs on five hits, which tied a Dodger record this season for runs and hits in an inning.

Duncan bunted for a single, breaking an 0-for-10 slump. He struck out four times Friday night, the first time he has done that in one game. After taking second on a Sax ground-out, Duncan scored on a Madlock single to left. Dave Anderson, running for Madlock, scored on Marshall’s double to left. Pinch-hitter Ken Landreaux singled home Marshall and went to third when pinch-hitter Scioscia singled to right. Landreaux scored on a balk by reliever Roger McDowell.

“We should have had the bunt,” Davey Johnson said of Duncan’s hit. “The bunt was the crack, and then it just crumbled.”

Before this streak began last Tuesday against the Cardinals, the Dodgers had lost four games in a row and six of seven. The bullpen was suspect. Hitting seemed to be an afterthought. Scorekeepers practiced writing their E ‘ s , what with the Dodger defense.

And before those four little disasters took place, games that Manager Tom Lasorda said the Dodgers could have won, should have won, the Dodgers had gone seven games without a loss. Sure this team has plenty of personality, but which one is it?

Dodger Notes

More on the Fog Light Incident: Met Dwight Gooden said Saturday that he changed his choice of pitches to Greg Brock after Friday night’s short delay involving a four-wheel drive vehicle parked behind the black screen in center field. Brock singled home two runs in the sixth inning, and the Dodgers went on to win, 4-3. According to Bob Smith, the Dodgers’ director of stadium operations, the driver of the truck had left his fog lights on, apparently creating a glare for Brock and home-plate umpire Bob Engel. Engel stopped play while the driver, who was using the gas-station rest room, was found. “If he hadn’t called time, about a 10th of a second later I would have called time,” Brock said. “It’s just one of those things that happen. I don’t think it would have mattered either way.” But Gooden told Jay Horwitz, the Met public relations director, that the incident had “interrupted” his concentration. Gooden had decided to throw a fastball to Brock before the delay but changed his mind and chose a curveball when play resumed. . . . Pitcher Dennis Powell, who is recovering from May 2 arthroscopic surgery on his left elbow, threw on the sideline for about five minutes Saturday. Powell is expected to pitch in about three weeks. . . . Dodger pitcher Alejandro Pena’s attempted comeback from a shoulder injury suffered a setback Saturday night when he was shelled while pitching for Vero Beach, the Dodgers’ Class A team in the Florida State League. Pena, starting against Daytona Beach, allowed 6 runs and 11 hits in 3 innings while walking 1 and striking out 2. Vero Beach eventualy lost, 14-12. The Dodgers said that Pena, his 20-day rehabilitation stay at Vero Beach concluded, will return to Los Angeles, and that his status is “uncertain.” . . . Today’s pitchers: Dodger Jerry Reuss (2-1) vs. Met Bruce Berenyi (1-0).