Welch Holds Padres to Four Hits to Earn Dodgers’ First Shutout

The Padres are proving they can make anyone a hero. Bob Melvin? Sal Butera? Robby Thompson?

All three beat the Padres with home runs this year.

And now welcome the Dodgers’ Mike Ramsey to the list. Although he didn’t hit any homers Friday night, Ramsey had three hits, including an RBI double, and he wasn’t the only one who had a fun time. There was catcher Mike Scioscia--his average is now .338--with three hits, and there was left fielder Pedro Guerrero with three hits.

And since the Padres managed only four hits off Bob Welch, they lost 5-0. It was the Dodgers’ first shut out of the year, and the 20th of Welch’s career.

“He was just about perfect,” Steve Garvey said of Welch.

But it’s this Mike Ramsey guy who had the Padres, mainly Manager Larry Bowa, cursing. He got all his hits off Padre starter Ed Wojna, and Bowa was so embarrassed, he decided afterward to take Wojna out of the starting rotation.

“We’ll go with a four-man,” Bowa said. “How long? For a while. We can’t get any worse.”

Welch doesn’t get much better. His fastball was clocked once at 90 m.p.h.

“That’s about all I got,” Welch said.

His only jam came in the fourth inning after a single by Tony Gwynn and a walk to John Kruk. There was only one out, but he got Kevin Mitchell to fly to right.

And then he struck out Garvey on three pitches.

“I threw him a fastball low and away (on the third one),” Welch said. “It thought it was a pretty good pitch.”

Garvey: “A perfect pitch.”

Meanwhile, The Dodgers botched only one thing Friday night: A first inning rally. Ramsey and Guerrero had each singled with one out, and Mike Marshall’s ground out had moved them to third and second base, respectively. Scioscia then stepped up, but Padre catcher Benito Santiago saw Guerrero straying too far off second base and threw to pick him off.

Guerrero couldn’t get back. He was caught in a rundown. Ramsey, who’d been on third, suddenly took off for home, and he, too, got caught in a rundown. Padre Third baseman Mitchell made the tag, ending the inning.

But things got progressively better for the Dodgers. In the second inning, the Dodgers went ahead, 1-0. Scioscia collected his first hit, a ground ball single to right off Padre starter Ed Wojna, and first baseman Franklin Stubbs followed with a double, Scioscia stopping at third.

Third baseman Tracy Woodson got the RBI with a simple ground out to shortstop Garry Templeton.

Then, the Dodgers put up three more runs in the third off Wojna. Mariano Duncan, Ramsey and Guerrero had consecutive singles (Guerrero’s scored Duncan), and then Marshall scored Ramsey with a sacrifice fly to right. Scioscia then singled through a drawn-in infield, and Guerrero scored.

Bowa then came to get Wojna.

And then the Dodgers scored off reliever Tom Gorman in the fourth. Duncan singled, and Ramsey drove him in with his third hit, a double to left center. By now, Ramsay was batting .286.

Ramsey hadn’t looked so good a few weeks back when he was in an 0-for-14 slump. But he finally got a hit against the Padres last Saturday, and had gone 6-for-20 until Friday night.

“I don’t know what it was,” Ramsey said of his slump. “I know I wasn’t getting no hits. But I believed in me. If you believe in yourself, man, you can do anything.”

Bowa doesn’t believe in his team, he said.

Someone wished him luck, and he said: “I’ll (bleeping) need it.”

Padre Notes Pitcher Rick Honeycutt, who has missed two starts with a pulled muscle in his rib cage, won’t miss a third. Manager Tom Lasorda announced Friday that Honeycutt will start Sunday’s game against the Padres. Honeycutt threw in the bullpen Wednesday and said he felt well enough to get going again. But he’ll have to take it easy at the plate, because that’s how he hurt his ribs--trying to swing too hard. . . . Pitcher Alejandro Pena, who had been out with the chicken pox, rejoined the team Friday and is available for bullpen duty right away.

Third baseman Bill Madlock’s sore shoulder is improving. He played “long toss” on Friday and is listed as day-to-day. . . . Lasorda on using Mariano Duncan as a leadoff man: “I’m hoping he does it well. That’s why I’m putting him there.” But Lasorda also said it’s nothing permanent. . . . Bowa, whose team has been pretty awful at times, says he’s noticed a few gray hairs on his head. “I’ll be completely gray in a month,” he said. . . . Doreen Ready, the wife of Padre infielder Randy Ready will attend Sunday’s game. Doreen collapsed and went into a coma last June, and when she awoke, it was discovered that she had suffered some brain damage. She’s been undergoing therapy at a Bakersfield hospital, and Sunday will be her first baseball game since her collapse.