Dodgers Don’t Need Pedro in 4-2 Win to Sweep Giants

For the first time this season, Pedro Guerrero’s name appeared on the lineup card in the Dodger dugout Wednesday night, even though it didn’t make the box score.

Guerrero, activated before the game, received a call from the sellout crowd of 45,944 at Dodger Stadium, but never got one from Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda.

Lasorda and the Dodgers didn’t need Guerrero to steal the humm baby right out of the Giants with a 4-2 win that completed a three-game sweep of slumping San Francisco.

Humm baby?

Before the Giants made Roger Craig give up his job as a big-city newspaper columnist to concentrate on his job as a big-league manager, that’s the ubiquitous term he used to describe anything connected to the team’s winning aura.

It’s a word he picked up as a kid, he said, on the sandlots of North Carolina.

But the Giants left it for the Dodgers to show how it works. To wit:

Humm baby , how about that Bob Welch, who won for only the second time since April 30 by holding the Giants to one hit through six innings and striking out nine.

“It was a real fast-paced game--boom, boom, boom,” said Welch, for whom wins have come in slow motion.

“I was a little slow in the seventh inning (when the Giants scored their runs), but it was good enough to win.”

Humm baby, how about that Steve Sax, who has a fractured rib but came through with an RBI pinch single in the seventh after the Giants had pulled to within 3-2 on Joel Youngblood’s two-run homer in the top of the inning.

“I don’t think I could have made it through the whole game,” said Sax, who punched a ground ball through short when the Giants were expecting a bunt.

“(The rib) was way too tender. But it didn’t hurt me to swing the bat.”

Humm baby , how about that Enos Cabell, who fouled a pitch off his lip, then hit the next one into right field for an RBI single in the Dodgers’ three-run first, which also featured a successful squeeze bunt by catcher Mike Scioscia.

Humm baby, how about reliever Tom Niedenfuer, who gave up hits in both the eighth and ninth but otherwise held off the Giants for his sixth save.

“Those two days off in Chicago really helped,” said Niedenfuer, who had pitched five times in the first eight games of the Dodgers’ last trip.

And humm baby, how about Guerrero, who was activated before the game, heard his name chanted in the seventh, but was left squeezing his bat on the bench, as Lasorda opted to use three other pinch-hitters.

Lasorda said he would have used Guerrero to bat for Bill Russell in the seventh if Sax had been healthy enough to play second base.

“Pete can’t do much but pinch-hit,” Cabell said. “And he probably could have pinch-hit about two weeks ago. If he goes out there and plays, he might hurt himself again.

“But we don’t have anybody else. We used up the minor leagues. We don’t even have people who can pinch-hit. The pinch-hitters are playing.

“But Pete can scare somebody. He’s not an ordinary player, he’s a dominant player, and there’s not many left in the game.”

While the Dodgers have won 8 of their last 10 to pull into fourth place, 7 1/2 games behind Houston, the Giants--who led the West by a game at the All-Star break, have lost 9 of their last 13, all on the road.

Call it Humm baby in reverse.

Wednesday, three Giants let Franklin Stubbs’ popup fall between them in the first inning, which scored the Dodgers’ first run.

In the seventh, rookie pitcher Terry Mulholland picked up Jose Gonzalez’s bunt and threw wildly to second trying to force Reggie Williams. Then, with the Giants expecting another bunt, Sax punched a ground ball through the hole vacated by shortstop Jose Uribe.

Dodger pitching limited the Giants to five runs and 15 hits in the three-game series, while 31 Giants went down on strikes--Orel Hershiser struck out 10, Fernando Valenzuela 11, Welch 9 and Niedenfuer one.

“We’re not playing with the intensity and spark we had,” said Craig, who no longer writes a column for the San Francisco Chronicle after team president Al Rosen instructed him not to.

“It was a bad road trip and now it’s over.”

The Dodgers swept the series even though they did not get a single extra-base hit in the three games.

“We’re back home and we’ve got Pete back,” Sax said. “That’s going to make a difference.”

Dodgernotes

Former Dodger pitcher Joe Beckwith, as expected, will re-sign with the team today, satisfying Manager Tom Lasorda’s desire for a right-handed long reliever. Dodger Vice President Al Campanis said final contractual details had not been worked out Tuesday night, when reports of Beckwith’s purchase from minor-league Syracuse had surfaced, which is why he would not confirm the deal at that time. Beckwith will sign upon his arrival in Los Angeles today, Campanis said. Beckwith, 31, who was released by Kansas City this spring, had a 9-6 record with Syracuse, Toronto’s Class AAA affiliate. He pitched for the Dodgers at various times from 1979-1983, compiling a 9-10 record. “He pitched good for us,” Lasorda said. “Use him in the right situation, and he can really help you.”....After the game, the Dodgers announced that left-hander Carlos Diaz had been optioned to Albuquerque for the second time this season, a move that came as a surprise to some teammates, who expected Ed Vande Berg to be the one to go....Second baseman Steve Sax underwent a bone scan that detected a nondisplaced fracture of a rib on his right side. His availability is listed as day to day....Mike Marshall, who has a stiff back, took batting practice for the second straight day and expects to come off the disabled list next Monday, when he is eligible. “I think my performance level, as far as running, hitting and throwing, isn’t 100% but (the injury) is not hampering my play,” Marshall said. “That’s a positive outlook. I may have to put up with it a little, but I’m slowly strengthening it, and the doctors seem to agree.”