Ryan Fires Astros Up Even More : Pitcher Returns, Beats Dodgers, 3-0

After a rhapsody by Nolan Ryan in his own special key of K, it was time to play “Name That Tune” with Houston reliever Charlie Kerfeld, who threw in a few finishing riffs of his own as the Houston Astros shut out the Dodgers, 3-0, Tuesday night.

And might it also be time to start playing “Taps” for the Dodgers, now that they’re nine games behind the first-place Astros with no safety net in sight?

“Yeah,” Kerfeld said. “I honestly don’t think they can win the next two, not with Mike Scott going (tonight) and Jimmy (Deshaies) the next night.

“Now we’re not worrying about the Dodgers. The team we have to think about is the Giants. They’re playing our kind of ball, coming back and beating teams.”

To beat the Dodgers Tuesday night, no comeback was needed, unless you count the one made by the 39-year-old Ryan, whose right elbow looks as if it has been through a Veg-a-matic.

Ryan has been on the disabled list twice this season with a ligament problem that eventually will require surgery, if his arm doesn’t fall off first. But in his first start since coming off the disabled list, the problem didn’t keep Ryan from chopping, slicing and dicing the Dodgers into bite-sized pieces of pennant pretenders.

Ryan had a no-hitter for 5 innings, until Steve Sax blooped a single in front of Astro left fielder Jose Cruz, and one out later, Bill Madlock grounded a single off the glove of Astro shortstop Dickie Thon. But that was the sum of the Dodger offense against Ryan, who ended his six-inning stint with a flourish, striking out Len Matuszek for his sixth K of the night.

The Astros, meanwhile, made the most of their five hits in five innings against Rick Honeycutt. Cruz hit a two-run triple in the second, and Bill Doran doubled in the fifth and scored on Billy Hatcher’s single.

The only other Dodger hit was Sax’s eighth-inning single off Kerfeld, who pitched the last three innings for his fifth save. But Kerfeld, a 6-foot 6-inch, 235-pound party waiting to happen, had his fun at Sax’s expense, picking off the Dodger leadoff man to end the inning.

“Shoot, I never pick guys off,” Kerfeld said. “But I was watching this purple ball they were playing with in the stands, and I figured Sax was looking, too. Sure enough, he was.”

It’s understandable why the Dodgers may have been watching beach balls. That’s more than they saw of the baseballs thrown past them by Ryan.

Before the game, Houston Manager Hal Lanier had said that even if Ryan had a no-hitter going, the right-hander would come out of the game after reaching an allotment of 100 pitches.

“I wouldn’t have revised that,” Lanier said after the fact. “I need Nolan healthy the rest of the season. He was coming out.”

Ryan, who was checked between each inning by the Astro trainer, said his elbow was “stiff, sore and numb right now. . . . But if I’d had a no-hitter after six, I’d have stayed.”

That attitude didn’t surprise Astro reliever Dave Smith.

“People don’t realize how much pain he’s pitching in right now,” Smith said. “But he’s almost 40 years old, and he probably figures this may be his last chance to be in the playoffs.

“So he’s giving it all he’s got, even if it’s jeopardizing his career. And we’ve got to have him. I’m not saying we couldn’t win without him, but it’s definitely an advantage.”

As if Ryan needed an edge, Smith said he thought the Dodgers had been demoralized by the previous night’s 7-6 loss.

“What really killed them was last night,” Smith said. “They lost a game in which we went with our fifth starter--when we have a 2-12 record with fifth starters--and we tried everything we could to give them that game and still ended up winning.

“That had to kill them, and we kind of sensed it tonight. They seemed to be flat, not the same Dodger team I’ve seen in the past.”

Matuszek acknowledged that the loss was a “killer game.” But he wasn’t buying Smith’s carry-over theory.

“Nolan Ryan’s out there, throwing the hell out of the ball,” Matuszek said. “The ’27 Yankees could have been out there against him and looked the same way.

“When you don’t hit and don’t score, you’re not going to have a lot of life and enthusiasm.”

It’s also hard to find a pulse when you’ve lost five of six games on a trip that was to have taken the Dodgers back into contention but instead has turned into a trail of tears.

“We can’t look ahead to anything but tomorrow,” Matuszek said. “We have to get something going tomorrow and start playing the kind of ball we were playing before we came on this road trip.

“But we won’t look at this thing as being over at the end of August. It just doesn’t happen that way.”

Maybe the Dodgers won’t, but the idea certainly is alive and kicking in Houston, where an Astrodome crowd of 37,973 waved “Blow L.A. Away” fans and chanted, “Beat L.A.,” lyrics the fans may have learned when the Rockets beat the Lakers in the National Basketball Assn. playoffs.

A banner in the bleachers put the local odds in perspective for Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda:

“Hey Tommy . . . You Got a Better Shot at the Lottery.”

Dodger Notes Back attack: Mike Marshall, 2 for 30 since coming off the disabled list Aug. 4, was out of the lineup with more back stiffness Tuesday and is scheduled to return to Los Angeles Thursday to be examined by Dr. Robert Watkins, a back specialist. Marshall is 3 for 50 since July 4, about the time his back problems became pronounced, and has just one home run since June 17. Dodger trainer Bill Buhler acknowledged that Marshall was still experiencing discomfort at the time he came off the disabled list. Marshall is expected to rejoin the Dodgers Friday in San Francisco, pending Watkins’ findings. . . . Once, Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda had visions of a three-slugger outfield: Marshall, Pedro Guerrero and Franklin Stubbs. Now, Guerrero is on the disabled list, Marshall hasn’t been right for six weeks and Stubbs is in a power slump. Since the All-Star break, Stubbs has five home runs but has only one since July 24 and none in his last seven games. He has just 10 runs batted in since the break, none in his last seven games. And it didn’t help Stubbs’ confidence any last Sunday when Lasorda sent a crippled Guerrero to bat for Stubbs with the bases loaded against Cincinnati reliever John Franco, even though Stubbs had beaten Franco with an 11th-inning single June 11 in Los Angeles. . . . Until Mariano Duncan decided he could bat on his sprained right knee and lined out in the sixth, Lasorda’s only left-handed pinch-hitter Tuesday was Fernando Valenzuela.