Dennis Powell Lets Pitching Do Talking as Dodgers Win, 5-0

Enos Cabell, for one, prefers to have Dennis Powell pitching rather than sitting on the bench.

“When he pitches, he doesn’t talk so much,” Cabell said of Powell. “On the bench, he’s a pain in the butt.”

Sunday, Powell was not only silent but the silencer, and he was a pain only to the Cincinnati Reds. The left-hander, who turns 23 in three days, combined with Ken Howell to shut out the Reds, 5-0, before 29,701 in Riverfront Stadium.

He also shut up the Cincinnati radio broadcasters who had predicted a four-game sweep if the Reds beat Fernando Valenzuela, which is exactly what they did Saturday.

But they didn’t reckon with Powell, who was given his first start since April 22 so that Bob Welch could open a four-game series tonight in Houston against the Astros, who lead the third-place Dodgers by seven games.

“That might not be a spot start after that performance,” Dodger pitcher Orel Hershiser said after Powell gave up just three singles, walked one and struck out six in 7 innings.

“I know something about spot starts,” said Hershiser, who earned his place in the Dodger rotation after filling in for an injured Jerry Reuss two springs ago. “Sometimes they can lead to a job.”

Sunday, the Reds gave Powell a lead with two gift runs, one in the first when center fielder Eric Davis let Mike Scioscia’s blooper bounce over his head for a triple, and another in the third, when rookie shortstop Kurt Stillwell dropped Powell’s pop fly.

The rest of the Dodger runs came courtesy of first baseman Greg Brock, who followed Mike Marshall’s seventh-inning single with a home run off Mario Soto, then added his 12th homer of the season off reliever Ted Power with the bases empty in the ninth.

Brock’s home run came moments after Soto had doffed his cap to the standing ovation he received for striking out Franklin Stubbs, the 1,400th strikeout of his career.

The only clapping after Brock’s home run came from the Dodger dugout.

“That wasn’t his 1,400th home run,” said Brock, who is batting .429 (12 for 28) in 10 starts since coming back a month ago from arthroscopic surgery on his left knee.

The triple was a first this season for Dodger catcher Scioscia, who actually pulled into third base standing up.

“Scioscia hits a triple--that figures,” said Bill Madlock, ignoring the fact that the infield hit he legged out to score Scioscia was almost as unlikely.

“I wouldn’t even call that a triple,” said Madlock, who got another RBI with an infield out that brought home Powell in the third.

Scioscia wouldn’t stand for that insult.

“How many triples do you have, pork chop,” said Scioscia, who not only has more stolen bases than the Dodger third baseman (2 to 1), but more triples.

For that matter, Scioscia has more triples than the swift Mariano Duncan, who sat out Sunday’s game with a sore right knee.

Scioscia might not have gotten his triple, nor Powell his win, if the skies had not cleared about 15 minutes before gametime. It had rained hard all morning and resumed raining after the game, but Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda was coy when asked whether, when he awoke this morning, he was rooting for a rainout.

“Do you want me to be honest with you?” Lasorda said. “I was hoping it wouldn’t rain.”

He chuckled to himself. “Now, don’t misquote me,” he said.

While Lasorda sat in his office, tearing apart some chicken while wearing the bill of his cap backward--”I don’t want to get anything on it while I’m eating,” he said--Powell was in the trainers’ room, now free to talk as much as he wanted.

“He chirps on the bench,” Hershiser said. “It’s not like he says stuff at the other team, but he’s precocious enough to get in on pranks and stuff. And he’s not afraid to get involved in somebody else’s conversation.”

Powell said he made an effort to keep his thoughts to himself before the game.

“It’s not like me to be quiet because I’m thinking,” he said. “But some of the guys got on me. They’ve been around longer, and I didn’t want to be criticized.”

He heard only praise after the game. Powell had pitched just 25 innings previously this season because of arthroscopic surgery on his elbow in May, followed by a demotion to the minors. He returned to the Dodgers just 3 1/2 weeks ago and has spent all his time in the bullpen.

“He pitched one helluva ballgame and we needed it, too,” Lasorda said.

“And Mike (Scioscia) did a super job with him. The Reds stood up there looking for fastballs, and Mike had him starting off with curveballs and changeups.”

Someone asked Buddy Bell, who had one of the Reds’ three singles off Powell, how Powell’s outing compared to Valenzuela’s the day before.

“To be honest with you, this guy pitched better,” Bell said. “His location was a lot better.

“Before, he just threw a fastball and breaking ball. Now he changes speeds with both his fastball and breaking ball. That might have been his problem before--trying to pop the ball before, instead of changing speeds.”

Now, the Dodgers change venues--to Houston, where the first-place Astros await.

“Realistically, we have to win three to have a chance,” Marshall said.

Said Hershiser, who is scheduled to pitch Wednesday: “We’ve got to win three of four or four of four. If we don’t do that, we’ll bury ourselves.

“But we still have our destiny in our hands. We’ve got eight games left with the Astros.”

Dodger Notes

Mariano Duncan, who did not play, said he heard something pop in his right knee when he slid into second base on an unsuccessful stolen base attempt in the fifth inning Saturday. “He’s got some swelling in there,” trainer Charlie Strasser said. The injury was announced as a bruise, but Duncan will be examined by a doctor in Houston today. “I want to see what I have in my knee,” Duncan said. “I don’t want them to say day-to-day, and then have it take about three weeks.” That’s what happened with Duncan when he sprained his right ankle--the Dodgers listed his status as day-to-day and he was out 20 days, from June 20 to July 8. . . . Don’t be surprised if the Dodgers decide to give Dennis Powell a start Friday in San Francisco and skip Alejandro Pena’s turn. Pena has one win in seven starts, and his earned-run average is 4.99. “Let’s wait four days and you’ll see,” Tom Lasorda said. . . . Mike Marshall is engaged to Mary Gillam, 23, of Pasadena. They met last summer when she worked as an intern in the Dodger publicity department. The couple has set a January wedding date.