Reggie Homer Wins It--for Dodgers, 4-3

R.J. Reynolds was a little-known extra when he came off the bench in 1983 and delivered the squeeze bunt against Atlanta that helped propel the Dodgers to a division title.

Reggie Williams was a Dodger extra when this season began, his position so tenuous that three games into the schedule he was sent down to Albuquerque. The Dodgers, it is safe to say, never imagined being in the position of needing Williams to supply them with power.

But Tuesday night, just four nights after hitting his first big league home run, Williams delivered again, blasting an 0-and-2 pitch from Pittsburgh reliever Cecilio Guante for a two-run home run in the top of the ninth that gave the Dodgers a 4-3 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates.

“I felt like I could do something this spring to help the team,” Williams said. “But there are still a lot of things I needed to learn as a hitter. I thought I could help in certain situations.

He laughed. “Maybe not home runs,” he said.

The rookie’s improbable homer hardly put the Dodgers in line to win the National League West. Their third win in the last four games allowed them only to move into a fifth-place tie with Atlanta.

It did, however, give the Dodgers the pleasure of only their second late-inning, come-from-behind win this season. And it also denied ex-Dodger Reynolds the satisfaction of sabotaging his former team.

Reynolds, batting .440 against the Dodgers this season, had a hand in all three of the Pirate runs Tuesday night. He hit a two-run homer in the fourth inning off Alejandro Pena to give Pittsburgh a 2-0 lead. In the sixth, he singled, took third on Tony Pena’s hit-and-run single and scored when Pena stole second and Dodger catcher Mike Scioscia threw the ball into center field.

“He had a heck of a game,” said Reynolds’ former roommate, Ken Howell, who closed out the Pirates in the bottom of the ninth for his eighth save.

“But it’s better for him to be bummed than us. It’s not as if we haven’t been in that situation.

“I don’t sympathize with him. Let him have his glory at somebody else’s expense.”

For eight innings, the Dodgers appeared headed for another inglorious loss as another ex-Dodger, Pirate starter Rick Rhoden, and reliever Larry McWilliams checked them on six hits and one run.

But in the ninth, Tom Lasorda, the Dodger manager and acting third base coach, sent up Alex Trevino to pinch-hit against the left-handed McWilliams. Pirate Manager Jim Leyland countered by bringing in the right-handed Guante, who had given up a ninth-inning home run to San Diego’s Steve Garvey in his last appearance.

Trevino, whose seventh-inning double against the Chicago Cubs on July 13 had given the Dodgers their only other comeback win, lined a two-base hit into the left-field corner. Scioscia, who in the fifth had doubled and eventually scored on a check-swing ground out by Williams, followed by punching an 0-and-2 pitch that was out of the strike zone into left field for a single, Trevino stopping at third.

Mariano Duncan hit into a force play, and only his speed prevented the Pirates from turning a double play. Trevino scored to make it 3-2, bringing up Williams, who looked at a breaking pitch for a strike, then swung and missed at another breaking ball.

But Williams hit the next pitch over the head of left fielder Reynolds and into the seats.

“It was like a vapor lock,” Reynolds said. “I couldn’t believe it.”

Neither, to be truthful, could the Dodgers. Lasorda slapped Williams’ back so hard as Williams rounded third that it’s a wonder Williams’ back wasn’t as sore as that of Mike Marshall, the power-hitting right fielder in whose place Williams played.

“It was like in the roller derby, when they sling the guy for the points,” Williams said, describing Lasorda’s slap.

Said Scioscia, obviously another fan of the Bay Area Bombers: “When Reggie took his helmet off after touching home plate, did that call the ham off?”

If nothing else, it temporarily took some heat off the Dodgers, who need to be beating up on the least in the East but instead have been breaking even.

As welcome as it was, however, Scioscia said this wasn’t the kind of win the Dodgers need.

“We need 7-2 games, 8-1 games,” he said. “It’s nice to come back--it gives us a nice feeling. But believe me, we could use some laughers.”

There was no levity in the bottom of the ninth, when with one out Howell walked pinch-hitter U.L. Washington on four pitches and Lee Mazzilli followed with a single, Mazzilli’s first pinch-hit in his last 20 tries.

But Howell caught Pirate rookie Barry Bonds looking at a full-count fastball on the outside corner, then retired Joe Orsulak on a force play to end it.

“I’ve got to get myself together if I’m going to help this ballclub,” Howell said.

Lasorda wasn’t complaining. “I don’t care, as long as he gets ‘em out,” the manager said. “He did the job, and that’s good enough for me.”

It was almost enough to make a sick man eat.

“I’ve still got an appetite,” said Lasorda, who has been ill for the last week. “I just can’t eat.”

Dodger Notes

The walls of Pirate Manager Jim Leyland’s office were splattered with milk after the game. A half-empty paper cup was on his desk. “0-and-2, that just can’t happen,” Leyland said, referring to the ball-strike count when Pirate pitcher Cecilo Guante gave up the game-winning home run to Reggie Williams. “I’m sorry, it just can’t happen. He (Guante) should have them eating out of his hand.” . . . Pirate starter Rick Rhoden, who came out of the game with a 3-1 lead and two runners on in the seventh, said he had no objection to Leyland’s decision to bring in left-hander Larry McWilliams. Even though he’d only thrown 78 pitches, Rhoden said: “I felt like I was losing my stuff.” . . . Dodger starter Alejandro Pena went six innings, giving up three runs, one unearned, five hits and four walks. “I pitched good,” Pena said, “but I was having a little trouble with my breaking ball. I couldn’t throw it for a strike.” Pena and catcher Mike Scioscia also had some problems with their signs, prompting three visits from Scioscia in the first inning alone. “Scioscia was giving the signs in English and Pena was expecting them in Spanish,” Manager Tom Lasorda said. . . . Dodger pitcher Jerry Reuss underwent arthroscopic surgery in Los Angeles to remove bone chips from the back of his left elbow. The Dodgers are estimating it will be five weeks before Reuss returns. . . . Third base coach Joe Amalfitano returned to Los Angeles after the death of his aunt and is not expected back until Thursday. Lasorda, who came to the Dodgers as a third base coach, filled in. “I think he likes to be out there, it gives him a chance to be more involved,” Scioscia said. “But I don’t think he’ll make anybody forget about Joe Amalfitano.”