Hershiser, Marshall Lift the Dodgers Back to .500 Level

Orel Hershiser, a business major, took only one psychology course in college. So while he may know a schizophrenic team when he sees one, Hershiser doesn’t pretend to understand one--even if he’s wearing the same uniform.

“We’re just a hot-and-cold team,” Hershiser said Wednesday night after the Dodgers had steam-pressed the Montreal Expos, 6-1, for their sixth win in the last seven games.

With Mike Marshall hitting two home runs, the Dodgers achieved a certain equilibrium for only the second time since the fourth day of the season: After 40 games, they’re at .500, and just 2 1/2 games out of the lead in the National League West, where five teams are bunched that closely together.

And the Dodgers, after losing six of seven, turned up the heat again against the teams that purportedly are the elite of the East: the defending champion Cardinals, the division-leading Mets and the Expos, who arrived here as the hottest team in the league and who had beaten the Dodgers three straight in Canada.

“You’d think we’d come in and lose to these guys,” said Hershiser, who gave up just one run in seven innings before leaving with a bruise on his forearm, which he’d smacked against his knee three times on his follow-through.

“Instead, we showed the talent we have. We just have to be more consistent.”

Marshall, the Dodgers’ only consistent source of power, regained a share of the league lead in home runs (10) and RBIs (32) held by Montreal’s Hubie Brooks with a solo shot in the second and a two-run homer in the sixth, both off Expo starter Jay Tibbs.

Brooks, a Dodger nemesis coming into the series (.371 lifetime average), has just a bloop single in seven trips. He also made a throwing error that opened the Dodgers’ three-run fifth.

“There’s a fine line between winning and losing,” Marshall said. “Just a hit here, a play there, one pitch can turn a whole game around and a week around. It’s an amazing thing.

“But any time you’re getting the pitching we’ve been getting, we’re going to be tough. It puts the pressure on the other team.

“It’s not like we weren’t getting the pitching in the first two weeks, it’s just now, we’re getting the timely hits.”

The Expos came into Los Angeles as the league’s top-hitting team, but they were blanked on two hits by Fernando Valenzuela Tuesday night and didn’t score off Hershiser until the sixth, when Hershiser was distracted by a beach ball, then threw one of his own to Tim Wallach, who hit it into the left-field bullpen.

That was the first home run given up by Hershiser in 64 innings this season, and the first since ex-Dodger Ron Roenicke, now with the Phillies, homered off him last Sept. 27 while with the Giants.

Hershiser had been just one of three pitchers--Atlanta’s Zane Smith and New York’s Sid Fernandez were the others--who had not served up a home run ball this season.

“I led the majors in home run ratio last season,” said Hershiser, who allowed just one home run every 30 innings last season.

“I know, because we used that stat in arbitration.

“I was mad about (Wallach’s) home run. I was distracted by a beach ball they were batting around behind home plate.

“I stepped off the rubber, but I never really got my game face back on. I slipped up and threw a fastball right down the middle.”

Even though he had Expo runners on base in every inning but the seventh, it was the only serious misstep by Hershiser, who lowered his earned-run average to 1.94 and also squeezed home a run in the fifth with a perfect bunt.

The Dodgers did everything right in that inning: Mike Scioscia sent Marshall from first to third with a hit-and-run single, Greg Brock fouled off several pitches before delivering an RBI single, Scioscia beating Andre Dawson’s throw to third, and Franklin Stubbs hit a long sacrifice fly.

In the field, the Dodgers were just as sharp, especially shortstop Mariano Duncan, who was even sharper in the Dodger clubhouse with a bright red-and-black jumpsuit with matching high-top sneakers.

“That’s his, ‘I’m going to ride in my new Corvette outfit,’ ” Hershiser said.

Ken Howell, who pitched the last two innings, senses that the Dodgers are finally dressed for success.

“It takes awhile for us to get cranked up, I guess,” Howell said. “We’ve taken our beatings and taken our criticism, but in the long run, we’re going to win a lot more games than we lose.

“The comments are going to stop, and people are going to stop talking about teams like the Mets and Expos. They’re outstanding teams, but position by position, man for man, we’re just as good, or better.”

High-altitude talk for a break-even team?

“I think we’re a better team than any team that will come in here,” Howell said.

Dodger Notes Expo starter Jay Tibbs has the distinction of facing more batters without hitting one than any other active major league pitcher. Tibbs came into the season having faced 1,331 batters without hitting one, a streak he had maintained through eight starts and 56 innings this season. . . . Blake Cullen, the National League’s supervisor of umpires, confirmed that umpire Dave Pallone has been reprimanded and disciplined in connection with his run-in with Montreal pitcher Jeff Reardon and Manager Bob Rodgers on May 9, in a game against the Dodgers. Presumably, Pallone was fined, though Cullen said league policy would not allow him to comment. “(Pallone) should have just let Jeff walk off the mound,” Cullen said. “We thought Dave went out of his way to precipitate a bigger argument, and that’s not how he’s been trained.” . . . All five of Franklin Stubbs’ home runs this season have come in Dodger Stadium. . . . Rick Honeycutt, listed as the Dodgers’ starter Saturday night against the Phillies, has been bumped from the rotation again. Honeycutt already has missed two starts since reporting some tightness in his shoulder. . . . Former Dodger Johnny Podres, who suffered a heart attack on April 10, is scheduled to undergo bypass surgery Thursday at St. Luke’s Hospital in New York.