Young Strikes Back, Holds Off Cardinals to Give Dodgers 7-6 Win

There have been times this season when the Dodger bullpen, statistically battered and psychologically scarred, probably would have been better off using Carl Jung instead of Matt Young.

But Sunday afternoon at Dodger Stadium, when the downtrodden short-relief corps again was reeling in the late innings against the St. Louis Cardinals, Young provided a boost that was far more uplifting than group therapy, a primal scream or months of analysis.

Dramatically pitching out of a jam inherited from Ken Howell in the eighth inning and a self-imposed predicament in the ninth that was even more dire, Young lifted the Dodgers to a 7-6 win over the Cardinals that drew a standing ovation from the crowd of 41,360.

Relief and elation, emotions that haven’t been felt much this season by Dodger relievers, just as easily could have been replaced by despair and depression.

Young, however, changed the script with an impressive display of self-preservation in the ninth inning that improved his record to a less-embarrassing 1-4 and lowered his earned-run average to 7.50.

“I’d have to say that any man who could do what he did today, that has to be the biggest lift of his career,” Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda said. “To do it the way he did with those three strikeouts in the ninth, if that doesn’t boost his confidence, nothing will.”

Lasorda may have crossed the line between praise and hyperbole, but there was no doubt Young and the bullpen are now feeling a little better about themselves. “We’ll find out tomorrow and the next day if it changes my career,” Young said. “But it can’t help but restore my confidence.”

Three straight strikeouts, all on hard sliders set up by 90-m.p.h. fastballs, will do that. With runners on first and third and none out, Young struck out hot-hitting Jack Clark on three pitches. Young then struck out Willie McGee on three pitches. And with the crowd on its feet in anticipation of a hat trick, Young did not disappoint.

Young worked the count to 0 and 2 against pinch-hitter Tom Pagnozzi, who fouled off two pitches and then struck out on a check swing.

Overcome with emotion, the normally blase Young pumped his left arm in exultation and was mugged by well-wishers.

“In my mind and Perry’s mind (pitching coach Ron Perranoski) and Tommy’s mind, I haven’t pitched bad,” Young said. “But when you come into the game 0-4 with an 8-something ERA, that’s pretty (poor).”

Young was called upon because Howell, who has struggled even more than Young or Tom Niedenfuer, failed to hold a 6-3 lead provided by Pedro Guerrero’s three-run home run and maintained by Bob Welch’s steady pitching. Howell, who gave up a game-winning ninth-inning single to Chicago’s Andre Dawson in his last appearance, quickly saw Sunday’s lead evaporate on Clark’s three-run homer in the seventh.

After a Cardinal runner reached third base with one out in the eighth, Lasorda decided to call on a new arm--and psyche.

In came Young, who forced pinch-hitter Skeeter Barnes to ground out and then struck out Vince Coleman on three pitches.

Given that reprieve, the Dodger offense did some damage to St. Louis reliever Pat Perry. Reggie Williams slashed a one-out single, and Ken Landreaux delivered a double down the right-field line that scored pinch-runner Mike Ramsey from first.

Landreaux, platooning with Mickey Hatcher in right field now that Mike Marshall is on the disabled list, entered the game at the same time Young replaced Howell.

“The more at-bats I see, the better I get,” Landreaux said. “I get to feeling more comfortable.”

A one-run lead going into the ninth usually is by no means in Lasorda’s comfort zone.

And Young caused more queasiness by giving up a leadoff single to Ozzie Smith. It was followed by Terry Pendleton’s single off shortstop Mariano Duncan’s glove that moved Smith to third.

But then Young found a formula for easing the anxiety. He set up Clark, McGee and Pagnozzi with fastballs that registered as high as 93 m.p.h. and then struck out all three with sliders clocked at a mere 81 m.p.h.

“I thought it was a knuckleball he threw to get me out,” Clark said.

Young doesn’t even throw a knuckleball, but perhaps his slider to Clark was so effective it gave the appearance of a dancing knuckler.

If Clark was fooled, it was a rarity for him Sunday.

In the fourth inning, Clark hit a solo home run to left field off Welch, who lasted 6 innings and was denied his fifth straight win.

Clark completed his second two-home run day this season in the seventh with the three-run blast off Howell, who had yet to give up a home run in 14 innings.

Guerrero, the Dodgers’ cleanup hitter, nearly matched Clark blow for blow. Guerrero, batting .358, had a single and a double and then hit the three-run home run in the fifth off starter Greg Mathews. Guerrero has 28 RBIs in 32 games.

Whitey Herzog, the Cardinals’ manager, could compare bullpen problems with Lasorda. Ace reliever Todd Worrell, whose ERA is approaching double figures, finally found a way to get out hitters by retiring two Dodgers in the eighth after Landreaux nailed Perry, who incurred the loss.

“We’ve got some serious pitching problems,” said Herzog, who also lamented his club’s inability to score in the ninth inning. “Well, we probably couldn’t have held them anyway (had they scored).”

Neither Lasorda nor Young would say that the pitcher’s outstanding performance Sunday will help anybody other than Young or even will last more than a day.

But it sure beats the alternative.

“The funny thing about baseball,” Young said in philosophic tones, “is that you can lose a game or mess up, and the sun still comes up in the morning.”

Only on this morning, for a change, Young’s ERA has gone down.