A Howell-ing Wind and Cubs Beat Dodgers in the Ninth, 5-4

Logic never has been part of the ground rules at Wrigley Field, so maybe it wasn’t so inexplicable that the Chicago Cubs were able to hit three home runs against both Fernando Valenzuela and a blustery wind blowing toward home plate here Monday.

Much more believable, given the late-afternoon elements here and the Dodgers’ knack for late-inning collapses, was the familiar way the Cubs pulled out a 5-4 win in the ninth inning amid the shadows and breezes that descended as evening crept upon Wrigley.

After watching a three-run lead blow away as Valenzuela gave up three home runs for only the fifth time in his seven-year career, the Dodgers sent out reliever Ken Howell to preserve a 4-4 deadlock until they could find a way to score.

He blew it.

With two out and nobody on in the ninth, Howell gave up a double to Ryne Sandberg. That was soon followed by a bloop single by Andre Dawson that held up in the swirling wind long enough for Sandberg to score, giving the Cubs their fourth straight win and sending the Dodgers down to another one-run defeat.

An inning earlier, Dawson made a sensational, over-the-shoulder catch in the right-field corner on a bases-loaded high fly by Mickey Hatcher to prevent the Dodgers from taking the lead. Hatcher seemingly had hit the ball long and high enough for either a home run or an extra-base hit, but the wind and Dawson held it in.

Once back inside the warmth of the visiting clubhouse, the Dodgers tried to sort out the reasons for blowing another lead, missing scoring opportunities and how the 18 m.p.h. head-wind could help the Cubs and not them.

There weren’t many answers--or excuses.

The Dodgers (13-13) simply accepted the fact that those things happen.

“It’s their ballpark,” said hot-hitting Pedro Guerrero, cooled off considerably by an 0-for-5 day. “The wind helps them. Maybe they know how to hit better in this place than us.” That point was driven home Monday with the force of the three line-drive home runs the Cubs hit off Valenzuela. The Cubs have hit 12 home runs in their last four games.

However, none of the three was hit by Dawson, who had hit one in each of his last three games and is second in home runs in the National League with nine. This time, Manny Trillo homered to left field in the third inning, Sandberg to left-center in the fifth and Leon Durham to left in the sixth. Durham’s lead-off home run to the opposite field erased the Dodgers’ 4-3 lead and set up Dawson’s late-inning heroics.

In terms of excitement and execution, his multiple run-saving catch in the eighth inning surpassed his broken-bat game-winning hit in the ninth. But Dawson probably wouldn’t have had a chance for the hit had he not made the catch.

The Dodgers had runners on first and second with one out, after singles by Mike Scioscia and Franklin Stubbs. But pinch-hitter Bill Madlock was able to move Scioscia only to third and, after a walk to pinch-hitter Reggie Williams, Hatcher could direct the ball past Dawson.

“When I hit it, I thought it might be far enough to go over his (Dawson’s) head or maybe out,” Hatcher said. “But I hit the ball high, and I think the wind might have held it. But Dawson made a great catch. Things like that happen when you’re hot and, right now, he’s one of the hottest players in baseball.”

Dawson, who doubled in the third inning off Valenzuela, said he wasn’t thinking home run when he faced Howell in the ninth. Instead, with the count 2 and 1 and the ball difficult to see in the shadows, Dawson reached out for a breaking ball and poked it into shallow right-center.

“It was a good pitch,” Dawson said. “He made it tough to hit. I was just trying to make contact.”

Howell, who worked an uneventful eighth inning in relief of Valenzuela, said he thought Sandberg’s double and Dawson’s single came off good pitches. But the balls were hit well enough to give Howell his first loss in three decisions.

“That pitch to Dawson wasn’t right out over the plate, and he had to reach out as far as he could to get it,” said Howell, who has given up nine runs in 14 relief innings. “You’ve got to give the hitter the credit. I think I did the things I needed to get out of the inning.”

Valenzuela, meanwhile, obviously was not in command. Despite giving up the 3 home runs and 10 hits, he still lasted seven innings. Valenzuela, who threw 134 pitches, said he could have continued pitching, but Manager Tom Lasorda said he wanted to make the move to Howell to protect Valenzuela’s arm.

“I think more of Fernando’s future than just one ballgame,” Lasorda said.

Lasorda’s other decision--pitching to Dawson in the ninth instead of walking him and having left-handed reliever Matt Young face Durham--ended up costing the Dodgers the game.

“The right-hander (Howell) out there was throwing pretty good, wasn’t he?” Lasorda asked. “Let’s put it this way: Did (Dawson) hit it hard? You wouldn’t exactly call that hit a line drive, would you?”

The Cubs, however, did hit Valenzuela hard.

Valenzuela credited the Cub hitters instead of blaming himself.

“If you hit the ball hard enough, it goes out no matter how hard the wind is blowing in your face,” Valenzuela said. “It’s not the wind, it’s the bat and the man.”

Hatcher said he felt cheated, in a way, that his drive in the eighth inning didn’t go out like the three earlier Cub shots did.

“But all of their home runs were line drives and mine was a little too high. Maybe the wind wasn’t blowing as hard closer to the ground.”

Lasorda didn’t put forth a theory on the wind blowing in from the outfield. He was more concerned with the Dodgers’ blowing chances to score.

“They have two outs and nobody on in the ninth and score, and we have nobody out (actually, one out) and two men on in the eighth and can’t score,” Lasorda said. “That’s the difference right there.”

Dodger Notes

The Dodgers scored all four runs off Cub starter Greg Maddux, who lasted five innings and gave up seven hits. Franklin Stubbs went 3 for 4 and had one RBI, and Mike Scioscia and Mike Ramsey each had two hits. . . . Pedro Guerrero, who entered the game hitting .363, went 0 for 5. Clean-up hitter Mike Marshall also went 0 for 5 (with three strikeouts), but he had a run-scoring ground ball in the first inning. Said Guerrero: “I don’t think I’ve ever hit very good in this ballpark, and I don’t know why. If I would’ve hit, we would’ve won the game. I left too many men on base (six on Monday). I didn’t expect to go 0 for 5, but I don’t worry about it.” . . . Cub reliever Dickie Noles earned the win despite pitching a shaky ninth inning.