Brock Takes Only Bow as Dodgers Win ‘Exhibition’ From Braves

Spring training came early Tuesday for the Dodgers and Braves, who chose a September night in Dodger Stadium to perform the way they usually do on March afternoons in Florida.

The stakes were about the same--neither team has anything to gain or lose--and so was the caliber of play.

And the crowd of 22,643--the smallest to see the Dodgers here this season--seemed hardly bigger than the folks who flock to Vero Beach and West Palm Beach to see these teams frolic in the sun.

Fittingly, the only guy who took a bow in the Dodgers’ 9-5 win was Greg Brock, and that was after he fell flat on his face while making a getaway from the batter’s box in the seventh inning.

Brock, to his credit, transformed the embarrassing slip into a show of good humor, waving his helmet to the crowd on his way back to the dugout, where he was greeted with applause from Manager Tom Lasorda and high-fives from Steve Sax.

Brock then came out of the dugout and took a curtain call.

“I was beet red--definitely one of the most embarrassing moments I’ve ever had,” Brock said.

“I stumbled, and then I caught a cleat. When I came back, Sax was jumping around like I’d just hit a home run in the seventh game of the World Series. Then all the guys said, ‘Get out there.’ ”

On the Greg Louganis scale of 1 to 10, Dave Anderson said the bench rated Brock’s dive “at around 7.5.”

Actually, Brock had less cause to blush than Atlanta catcher Ozzie Virgil, who spent the night trying to extract the ball from his glove while the Dodgers stole everything in sight.

The Dodgers, who hadn’t stolen more than five bases in a game this season, had six by the end of the third inning and seven for the game, one short of the team record, set in 1974.

In both the first and third innings, they executed double steals while Virgil turned the task of taking ball from glove into a personal torture.

Sax stole three bases, matching a team high. Bill Russell also had three thefts, one fewer than he had in each of the last two seasons.

“A tribute to his longevity,” Sax said of the 37-year-old Russell.

Russell demurred. “I was just pulling up the rear,” he said.

Bill Madlock hit a two-run homer, Alex Trevino and Enos Cabell hit two-run singles, and Braves starter Zane Smith failed to last through the Dodgers’ five-run first, his final indignity coming when he walked Honeycutt with the bases loaded to force in a run.

Just to show Smith that it could happen to anybody, his replacement, Craig McMurtry, walked the first batter he faced, Sax, to force in another run.

But Honeycutt, instead of breezing to his 11th win against nine losses, staggered through five innings, giving up nine hits, four walks and all of the Braves’ runs.

Alejandro Pena finally entered and stopped the Braves on one hit in the final four innings, striking out four, to earn his first save in more than three years. Pena’s last save came on April 22, 1983.

If nothing else, the Dodgers solidified their hold on fourth place in the NL West. They remained 14 games behind the first-place Astros, while the fifth-place Braves dropped to 15 1/2 back. The Padres are last, 17 1/2 games back.

“Weird game,” Brock said. “Fourteen runs in the first 3 1/2 innings, then nobody comes close to scoring until (Dale) Murphy hit that ball.”

Murphy’s drive was caught by Dodger center fielder Jose Gonzalez against the fence in the eighth.

“I don’t know how you take it,” Brock said, when asked if the game had reminded him of a spring exercise. “I don’t think anybody’s letting up, we’re still playing hard, but you’ve got to go out there and have fun.

“The pressure is released. You don’t want that, but you’re not watching the scoreboard, you don’t treat each game as if it’s a must win, you just go out and relax.

“Watch, we’ll probably go out and win 15 in a row.”

Dodger Notes Steve Sax went 1 for 3, a first-inning single, to extend his hitting streak to eight games and maintain his average at .324, nine percentage points behind league-leader Tim Raines (.333), eight behind runner-up Tony Gwynn (.332). Sax also made the evening’s two finest defensive plays. In the fourth, he charged Dale Murphy’s roller, barehanded the ball and threw out Murphy by half a step. In the ninth, he ran 100 feet into right field to make an over-the-shoulder catch of Bob Horner’s blooper. . . . Atlanta Manager Chuck Tanner said Alejandro Pena threw better than he has since his return from shoulder surgery. “Pena had a great fastball,” Sax said. “He was blowing the ball by people.” . . . Four of the nine hits allowed by Dodger pitcher Rick Honeycutt were infield hits and two were bloopers. Billy Sample’s two-run homer in the second was a 330-foot line drive into the seats just inside the left-field foul pole. . . . Dodger reliever Tom Niedenfuer threw hard for 10 minutes in batting practice; his hamstring condition will be evaluated again today. . . . Shortstop Mariano Duncan had the cast removed from his fractured left foot and did some light jogging. . . . Braves catcher Ozzie Virgil, on the Dodgers’ seven stolen bases: “They were running from the git-go. I thought I made a few good throws.”