Dodgers Beat Astros on Honey of a Pitching Job, 1-0

The Dodgers, who seemingly had trouble walking a straight line on the road, returned home and walked a Dodger Stadium tightrope Thursday night.

They never lost their balance, either, edging the Houston Astros, 1-0, in what they hope will be the first step toward a different equilibrium in the National League West.

Rick Honeycutt allowed two ground-ball singles in eight innings, and Ken Howell closed out the Astros in the ninth to make the only run of the game stand up.

That run was scored by Steve Sax, who tripled in the sixth and came home on Ken Landreaux’s sacrifice fly.

The Dodgers had only three hits, two by leadoff man Sax, off three Houston pitchers. But with Honeycutt striking out seven and walking just one--and that intentionally--the Dodgers were able to slice a game off Houston’s lead in the West before a crowd of 32,545.

The Dodgers, who had lost four games to the Astros in the standings during the nine days of their trip, trail Houston by 5 1/2 games.

And the same team that committed five errors Wednesday night at Philadelphia made just one here, an inconsequential one at that. What mattered more was a tough tag play by shortstop Mariano Duncan, who had three errors on Wednesday night but on Thursday night took catcher Mike Scioscia’s throw after Jose Cruz struck out and put the tag on Denny Walling for a game-ending double play.

“When you start playing teams in your own division, you have to start playing a little better baseball,” said Honeycutt, who came out after his chronically irksome shoulder stiffened on him in the eighth.

“That’s exactly what Tommy (Lasorda) said before the game. We lost four games in the standings on this past road trip, but we’re playing these guys four times and have a chance to make up four games in four days.

“Hopefully, we’ll start playing more consistently.”

The Astros, off to the best start in their history, and that under a new manager, Hal Lanier, have occupied first place for 47 days, the longest run by any club in the big leagues this season. They’ve held the lead for the last 29 days and still are a game ahead of the second-place San Francisco Giants, who didn’t play Thursday night.

But they also came in having lost 52 of their last 84 meetings with the Dodgers and without Nolan Ryan, who went on the disabled list earlier this week with a sprained elbow ligament.

No one would have confused Ryan’s stand-in, Manny Hernandez, with the King of K’s, but the rookie right-hander still was a handful for the Dodgers in his big-league debut.

Hernandez, a 25-year-old from the Dominican Republic, matched one-hitters with Honeycutt through five innings, Sax’s single in the third being the only Dodger hit.

But Sax, who also had walked and stolen second in the first, opened the sixth with a drive that caromed off the wall in left-center past center fielder Billy Hatcher. Cruz, the left fielder, retrieved the ball and threw to shortstop Dickie Thon, but Sax’s headfirst slide just beat the relay.

“Close, very close,” Sax said. “When I rounded second, I didn’t know the ball had hit the wall. I thought it might have short-hopped it, so I just went for it.”

Landreaux, who had seven hits in nine trips in the previous two games, drove Hatcher back far enough to bring Sax home without a throw.

“This was maybe our biggest win of the year, for many reasons,” said Sax, whose enthusiasm is as long as his perspective may be short.

“It gives us some momentum with three games left; we knocked down a game, and it gave us a big shot in the arm to have Honeycutt pitch that well.

“That really picked us up. I think it was one of his best games ever for us. He was turning the ball over well, he had a good fastball, and his curveball was breaking good.”

Sax’s praise had Honeycutt groping for a comparison.

“I looked like a young Lasorda out there,” he said.

The old Lasorda couldn’t have been happier, especially after Howell finished off the Astros for his third save.

“We know we’re going to turn things around--we believe that,” said Howell, whose 1.03 earned-run average is lowest of any pitcher in the league.

“We just have to sit back and keep pushing each other.”

Dodger Notes The battered Dodger bullpen gained one body but lost another. Carlos Diaz, as expected, was recalled from Albuquerque, where he had appeared in three games, saving one and allowing four hits in five scoreless innings. But Tom Niedenfuer, who made five appearances on the just-completed trip, including four in a row, was reported to have soreness in his right elbow and was not available to pitch Thursday night. Niedenfuer, who has not pitched since giving up a grand slam to Jim Morrison Sunday in Pittsburgh, was reluctant at that time to say if his arm was tired, but it was apparent that he had subpar velocity. Trainer Bill Buhler said the elbow trouble is a recurrence of a problem that Niedenfuer has experienced in the past, and doesn’t believe it is serious. In 1984, Niedenfuer went on the disabled list twice with elbow trouble. . . . In other roster moves, outfielder Cesar Cedeno was given his release after meeting with Dodger Vice President Al Campanis early Thursday afternoon. Cedeno, 35, batted .231 with no home runs and 6 RBIs in 37 games with the Dodgers. He remains one home run short of 200 for his career. Left-handed pitcher Dennis Powell, who underwent elbow surgery May 2, was optioned to Albuquerque on a 24-hour recall basis. Powell is scheduled to pitch a simulated game tonight in Albuquerque. . . . A footnote on Mariano Duncan’s defense: Although the Dodger shortstop leads the league with 15 errors, he had gone 16 errorless games in a row before committing three errors in Wednesday night’s 8-7 loss at Philadelphia.