Fernando ’86 Gives an Expo: 2-Hit Shutout

During the Christmas rush last December, Mitch Webster delivered packages for the United Parcel office in Great Bend, Kan.

“I like to work,” he said. “And I was tired of hunting.

“And I worked, I’ll tell you that. It gives you a good incentive to bust for baseball.”

It would have been better for Fernando Valenzuela if Webster had stuck to passing out presents.

Instead, Webster was back in a baseball uniform Tuesday night, and it was his seventh-inning single that busted up Valenzuela’s tango with a no-hitter, one pitch after Valenzuela’s flirtation with perfection ended with a base on balls to Tim Raines.

Valenzuela, who had retired the first 18 Expos in order, finished with the fifth two-hitter of his career in a 4-0 win over Montreal before a Dodger Stadium crowd of 39,845.

Webster, 27, once belonged to the Dodgers, drafted right out of high school in the 23rd round in 1977. But he was left unprotected in the minor league draft and Toronto grabbed him before trading him to Montreal last summer.

“Monty (Basgall) didn’t like him,” Dodger trainer Bill Buhler said to Valenzuela, putting the tongue-in-cheek blame for Webster’s departure on the Dodger infield coach.

Valenzuela tried to glare. “I’m going to talk to Monty,” he said, before breaking into a smile.

Disappointed? Sure he was. But at least Valenzuela won this two-hitter. The last one he threw one, a year ago last April, he lost, 1-0, to San Diego on Tony Gwynn’s ninth-inning home run.

He won this one on a two-run, second-inning home run by Franklin Stubbs. It was Stubbs’ fifth home run of the season but his first in 21 at-bats since April 30, when he connected off Dennis Eckersley of the Cubs.

It also was Stubbs’ third career home run off Expo starter Bryn Smith, who figures he has something coming in return.

“Stubbs owes me a dinner or two for keeping him in the big leagues,” Smith said. “He hits me like he owns me.”

Valenzuela was sole owner of the Expo bats Tuesday night. He faced just 29 batters, two over the minimum. The first 12 did not get the ball out of the infield. Dodger scout Mike Brito said that Valenzuela registered 90 m.p.h. on seven pitches in the first inning alone.

That was his fastball. “When I saw the way his screwball was breaking,” Brito said, “I knew there was no way they were going to beat the guy.”

No one reached base until Valenzuela missed high and outside with a 3-and-2 fastball to Raines, the leadoff hitter in the seventh.

“In that situation,” Valenzuela said, “I tried to throw the ball as hard as I can.”

The next batter was Webster, a switch-hitter whose most distinctive swings probably had come while playing for Syracuse in the minor leagues. There, he had won round-trip tickets to Europe for winning a home run-hitting contest two years running.

“I knew he was a good first-ball hitter, a good fastball hitter,” Valenzuela said of Webster.

“I threw him a screwball, but I tried to throw a strike, and it didn’t break too much.”

It was Valenzuela’s first pitch from the stretch all night.

“No,” he corrected. “I threw from the stretch in the bullpen. The only difference was, there were no hitters.”

Webster reached out and whacked it into left field on one bounce to Stubbs.

“I think he hit it one-handed,” said Enos Cabell, watching from the Dodger bench.

Webster admitted he didn’t hit it hard.

“I didn’t really crush it,” Webster said. “I hit it square, but I was out in front of it a little bit. I was trying to hit the ball to the right side, so I held back on it.”

Valenzuela threw a called third strike past the next batter, Andre Dawson. Hubie Brooks, who came into the game batting .371 against the Dodgers and .387 against Valenzuela, then grounded into a double play.

In the ninth, pinch-hitter Jim Wohlford lined a single to center before Valenzuela ended the game by striking out Raines and getting Webster on a force play.

The Dodgers, not about to deviate from tradition, all but ignored Valenzuela when he returned to the dugout after the Expo sixth.

Valenzuela took a seat on the bench next to trainer Charlie Strasser, took a drink from a paper cup and grabbed a towel, which he wrapped around his neck. No one said a word to him.

“I realized after Smith batted in the sixth that I hadn’t held anybody on base all night,” first baseman Greg Brock said. “It was exciting.”

To everyone, perhaps, but Valenzuela.

“Freddy laughed all the time,” Cabell said. “He does stuff to make you laugh. He does things with his face to make you laugh.”

But he does things on the mound that make crowds want to cheer, the way the Dodger Stadium crowd accorded him a standing ovation when he came to the plate in the sixth.

“Even when he lost the no-hitter, he kept his composure,” Cabell said. “Will he ever throw a no-hitter? With Hershiser, Welch and Fernando, if I play here long enough, I’ll probably see a bunch of ‘em.”

Dodger Notes

Mike Marshall, 1 for 13 against Bryn Smith, who once beaned the Dodger right fielder, doubled in the sixth to bring in the third Dodger run. In the seventh, Bill Madlock singled home Steve Sax against reliever Dan Schatzeder, Madlock’s eighth hit in 10 at-bats with runners in scoring position. . . . Two batters after Franklin Stubbs’ home run, Smith hit Mariano Duncan in the right shoulder with a pitch. Duncan stole second on the next pitch, his league-leading 16th steal, but was thrown out at third on the next. . . . Alejandro Pena, who was supposed to have pitched in a simulated game today, was scratched because of a blister on his right index finger.