Doctor K Fails to Make the Red Sox Say Awe : Hurst, Boston Win, 4-2, Take 3-2 Series Edge

Again, Doctor K was not OK. Again, Dwight was not-so-Gooden. That makes two straight starts now, too short to qualify as a trend but long enough to prompt some heavy thinking among the Mets as they shuttle back to New York for Game 6 of the World Series.

Game 5 was lost, 4-2, Thursday night when Dwight Gooden, a.k.a. Kid Koufax, looked again like any other self-conscious 21-year-old on center stage with an entire nation looking on. For the second time in five days, Gooden was beaten by the Boston Red Sox, who have gone from staggering underdogs in this Series to the very brink of their first world championship since 1918.

The Red Sox, who stopped hitting against Bobby Ojeda and Ron Darling, suddenly remembered against Gooden. Or was it Gooden, winner of 58 games in his first three big league seasons, who suddenly forgot how to make the big pitch and was outpitched by Boston’s Bruce Hurst?

Gooden left the bases loaded in the first inning but was wounded in the second by a Dave Henderson triple and a sacrifice fly by Spike Owen. With two outs and two runners on base in the third inning, he surrendered a run-scoring single to Dwight Evans. And in the fifth, he served up another triple, to Jim Rice, and singles to Don Baylor and Evans, bringing his personal curtain down before the Mets could get the first out of the inning.

After giving up 6 runs and 8 hits in 5 innings of Game 2, Gooden couldn’t get an out in the fifth inning of Game 5. In his World Series bow, Gooden has bowed out with an 0-2 record and an 8.00 earned-run average--8 earned runs in 9 innings.

Anyone need another reason why the Red Sox hold a 3-games-to-2 advantage over the Mets and could close out The Best Team In Baseball with one more victory Saturday or Sunday nights in the best-of seven Series?

“That wasn’t really vintage Doc Gooden out there,” New York Manager Davey Johnson admitted. “He didn’t have good movement on his fastball. He was throwing hard, but it was not moving well. He didn’t fool too many hitters.”

Gooden is reputed to own the most wicked fastball this side of Nolan Ryan, but it was nowhere to be found at Fenway Park Thursday night. Gooden conceded that his renowned heater was only “average” and resorted more than usual to his off-speed pitches.

“Dwight can read hitters as well as (catcher Gary) Carter can,” Johnson said, “and when the hitters are on to his fastball, he throws his breaking ball.”

Against the Red Sox, Gooden went with breaking balls . . . and more breaking balls.

“He was throwing out of character,” the Red Sox’s Bill Buckner said. “He must have thrown 50% breaking pitches.”

Added Rice: “Everyone knows Dwight Gooden is a power pitcher--and goes up their looking for his fastball. I was looking for a breaking ball because that was the only pitch he was getting over. And a breaking ball was what I hit for the triple.”

That hit, along with Henderson’s drive to right-center field, gave the Red Sox, the slugs of the major leagues, two triples in four innings. If that isn’t a record, it’s close.

Boston also managed 9 hits in 4-plus innings against Gooden. With the exception of Rich Gedman and Owen, everyone in the Red Sox lineup batted safely against Gooden.

And this is the same Red Sox lineup that managed one unearned run off Darling in Game 1, one run against Ojeda in Game 3 and no runs in seven innings against Darling in Game 4.

But on the two occasions they have faced Gooden, Boston has won by scores of 9-3 and 4-2.

Baylor, the Red Sox designated hitter, said the overpowering Gooden of old has been missing in action this Series.

“He can be dominating. That’s the way I’ve seen him before, when I watched him on TV,” Baylor said. “He’d go after any team and he’d challenge any hitter. When he went to the mound, it was an automatic win.

“To see him struggle here and in New York, it’s like we’re seeing a completely different pitcher. He’s probably going through what every third-year player goes through--not believing in yourself. He has too good a fastball to be throwing so many off-speed pitches.”

Gooden claimed his reliance on his curveball and changeup was merely good baseball strategy.

“It was something I had to do. I had to mix up my pitches,” Gooden said. “The game in New York, I threw mainly fastballs and they knew what was coming. I had to throw off-speed pitches.”

He said working on three days’ rest, instead of his accustomed four, didn’t sap his fastball of its usual strength.

“It made no difference,” Gooden said. “I knew it was (my) last start of the season, so I gave it everything.”

He said he didn’t think he pitched that badly.

“I made the pitches I had to make,” Gooden said. “I got myself into some trouble, and (the Red Sox) got the hits when they needed them. There were just some tough breaks tonight.”

And in Gooden’s defense, that was true. Shortstop Rafael Santana kicked one ball for an error, and second baseman Tim Teufel, the defensive goat of Game 1, misplayed two grounders into generously-scored infield singles. Santana’s error, on a bouncer by Buckner, eventually led to a Boston run.

But the worst break to go against Gooden Thursday night was the pitching matchup. Gooden found himself paired against Hurst, who outdueled Darling, 1-0, in Game 1 and took another shutout into the eighth inning in his second Series start.

Hurst allowed 6 hits through 7 innings before yielding an eighth-inning home run to Teufel and a ninth-inning double to Mookie Wilson, followed by an RBI single by Santana.

With two out in the top of the ninth, Hurst then faced Lenny Dykstra, owner of two World Series home runs and the potential tying run. Hurst struck him out.

Right now, Hurst has the look of a World Series MVP. In two starts, he is 2-0 with a 1.06 ERA. He has pitched one complete game and eight innings of another. In 17 innings, he has struck out 14 Mets.

And Thursday night, Hurst lent considerable fuel to the argument that pitching is finesse first and speed second.

“I don’t think baseball is a power game,” Hurst said. “It’s not how hard you throw it, but where you put it. You can’t play hard and aggressive all the time. Finesse counts.

“There are only a few in this game who can overpower people, anyway. Maybe just Roger (Clemens). And Dwight.”

Maybe before the World Series that was true. But ever since the Red Sox and the Mets emerged as the Final Two, Gooden hasn’t been anything but just another pitcher.

And the Mets have become just another World Series team on the verge of extinction.