Astros’ Deshaies Guns Down First 8 Dodgers, Wins

That ol’ Texas gunslinger, Nolan Ryan, never reached for his holster. Mike Scott, the split-fingered assassin, never showed his hand.

But one by one Tuesday night, like clay pigeons in a skeet shoot, the Dodgers were blasted out of the batter’s box in record-breaking fashion in a 4-0 loss to Houston at the Astrodome.

The first eight Dodgers to come to the plate returned to the dugout as strikeout victims, a display of batting futility unprecedented in baseball’s modern era.

They were victims not of Ryan, the King of Ks, nor of Scott, the big league leader in strikeouts this season, but of one Jim Deshaies, a 26-year-old rookie left-hander who was Joe Cowley’s teammate in the minor leagues before breaking the record Cowley set just four months ago with the Chicago White Sox, when he fanned the first seven Texas Rangers he faced on May 28.

Seven Dodgers went down swinging at third strikes. Pedro Guerrero, the first batter in the second inning, took a changeup for a called third strike after fouling off nine straight fastballs with a 3-and-2 count.

Deshaies tied the record when he struck out Dave Anderson to open the third. He broke the record by blowing a fastball past rookie Jose Gonzalez, who managed to foul two balls back into the screen.

The whiffing ended only when rookie Larry See, sent up as a pinch-hitter for pitcher Dennis Powell, popped to second on a 1-and-2 pitch.

See had faced Deshaies twice before and struck out, so he was understandably proud of his popup.

“There’s a lot of satisfaction in knowing he got everybody but me,” See said. “I didn’t want to let him get me, too.”

Just who is this Dodger-killer, who wound up with 10 strikeouts in all and a two-hit shutout in his first big league complete game?

“A rookie lunatic like me,” Astro reliever Charlie Kerfeld said. “The ultra mega-left-handed personality.”

Deshaies might have a dynamic personality, but nobody had ever accused him of throwing a dynamite fastball. If Ryan throws what Kerfeld calls high octane--95 m.p.h.-plus--then Deshaies throws low-lead--usually around 85 m.p.h., though the radar gun clocked him at a season-high 89 Tuesday.

“I used mirrors,” Deshaies said with a laugh. “I had (Billy) Hatcher in center field, flashing a little mirror.”

Two weeks ago, after a loss to the Dodgers in Los Angeles, Houston Manager Hal Lanier had dropped Deshaies from the rotation. Earlier this season, he had used Deshaies in an exhibition against the Army at West Point, which Deshaies won easily.

“Bring on the Navy,” Deshaies cheerfully said after that one.

Instead, he got the Dodgers, who discovered that there were no lifeboats to be found.

“I wouldn’t call it a fluke, but it was a freak thing,” Deshaies said. “If I’d gotten say, just one pitch a little in or something, there might have been a hit, and no record.

“I didn’t know about the record, but I knew I was striking everybody out. I was really pumped up, throwing almost all fastballs except the changeup to Guerrero, and once I struck out the side the first two innings, there was no way I was thinking about anything but getting strikeouts.

“I knew it would have to come to an end, and then I’d have to settle down. If I had pitched the whole game the way I did the first three innings, I would have blown my arm out.”

The Astrodome crowd of 27,734, cheering at every strike, rose for a standing ovation when Deshaies tied, then broke the record. He stepped off the mound after striking out Gonzalez, and second baseman Bill Doran came over with a question.

“He said, ‘You broke the record, don’t you want to keep the ball?’ ” Deshaies said. “I don’t know if I was superstitious or what, but after setting the record, I didn’t want to stop using the ball.

“I figured even if somebody hit it, it would just be a ground ball or something. I never even thought of a foul.”

See did hit one foul, but into the screen, so Deshaies’ souvenir was preserved.

Dodger Notes

Steve Sax had the Dodgers’ first hit Tuesday, a fourth-inning single that extended his hitting streak to 21 games, the longest in the National League this season. Sax went 1 for 4, and is batting .328, trailing San Diego’s Tony Gwynn and Montreal’s Tim Raines, who are both hitting .333. Enos Cabell, who singled in the seventh, had the Dodgers’ other hit.

THE NOT-SO-GREAT EIGHT

Player How 1. Sax Swinging 2. Williams Swinging 3. Cabell Swinging 4. Guerrero Called 5. Trevino Swinging 6. Hamilton Swinging 7. Anderson Swinging 8. Gonzalez Swinging