Dodger Stadium Is Just Like Home for Rawley : Unfortunately for the Dodgers, He Pitches (and Hits) for the Visiting Phillies

Philadelphia’s Shane Rawley is the kind of opposing pitcher home-team fans hate. You see, Rawley doesn’t understand this home-field advantage business. And Sunday afternoon, he all but mocked the fact that it’s the Dodgers’ 25th anniversary in their stadium.

Rawley pitches for an Eastern Division team, which, like all good Eastern Division teams, is supposed to hate the grind of the West Coast swing. The three-hour time change, the disgustingly beautiful weather. But Shane Rawely actually likes Dodger Stadium. He feels comfortable pitching here.

“I like the stadium, the fans here are great and the Dodgers are the Dodgers,” the 31-year-old left-hander said in the locker room after Sunday afternoon’s game. “It’s a great baseball atmosphere.”

With that attitude, it’s surprising he didn’t join the Dodger fans on the infield before the game snapping up pictures of their favorite men in blue on Camera Day.

Shane Rawley, who is from Racine, Wis., can like playing in Los Angeles all he wants, but the Dodgers don’t like him, at least when he’s on the mound pitching against them. Heck, they don’t even like it when Rawley’s at the plate.

After pitching seven innings of one-run, five-hit baseball and going 1-for-3 at the plate in a 3-1 Phillie victory, Rawley is 7-0 lifetime against the Dodgers. The win was Rawley’s sixth of the season, his fifth straight, and his second this year against the Dodgers. He beat the Dodgers, 6-3, in Philadelphia on May 21.

When John Shelby hit a first-inning Rawley change-up into the left-field stands to stake Los Angeles to a 1-0 lead, the Dodgers looked as if they might break the Rawley jinx. Pedro Guerrero followed with a single, but the top starter in the Phillie rotation gave up only three more hits through the seventh. And after Shelby’s homer, Rawley wasn’t about to make any more mistakes with change-ups.

“That (pitch to Shelby) wasn’t a very good pitch,” he said. “I’m a little disgusted with that. I really shouldn’t have thrown it.”

Rawley has become the bright spot on a Phillie pitching staff that has turned out to be the question mark everyone thought it might be at the beginning of the season. The Phillies, now a spot ahead of Pittsburgh at the bottom of the NL East, are eighth in the National League in team pitching with a 4.42 earned-run average. The starters are 15-16 with a 4.72 ERA. But Rawley is 6-2 with a 2.84 ERA.

“I think you’d have to consider him the ace of our staff right now; he’s kept us in about every game,” said Phillie catcher Lance Parrish, the man who is supposed to mold the young Phillie starters. He’s had his hands full with all but Rawley, the nine-year veteran.

Rawley, who joined the Phillies in 1984 after spending 2 1/2 years under five managers and five pitching coaches with the New York Yankees, likes being the ace of the staff.

“Yeah, I guess I’m the ace, but not because I’m any better at pitching than the other guys, I just have more experience.

“I’m the veteran. I guess the younger guys can think of me as the experienced one, the guy who can stop a losing streak, tell them about the hitters. That’s what, ‘being the ace,’ is all about.”

The Phillies figured to have pitching problems this year, but with the batting order stacked with Mike Schmidt, Juan Samuel, Von Hayes, Parrish, Glenn Wilson and Mike Easler, hitting wasn’t supposed to be a problem. But, stepping up to the plate is Shane Rawley, the Phillies’ second-leading hitter at .333, 9 for 27. Not bad for a guy who hit .116, .138 and .173 his first three years in the NL. That’s what being the ace is all about.

Against the Dodgers, Rawley hit a ground-rule double into the left-field bleachers in the third inning for the second hit off Dodger starter Rick Honeycutt. A souvenir for those fans he likes so much. Rawley has now hit in 7 of his last 8 games and in 8 of the 11 games he has started this season.

Rawley could have done as much damage at the plate as he did on the mound if he hadn’t missed a squeeze sign with two on and one out in the fourth or been lifted for a pinch-hitter with the bases loaded and two out in the eighth.

The right-handed hitting Rawley flat out blew the squeeze sign. But he wanted to hit for himself in the eighth, and would have had Dodger left-handed pitcher Brad Havens not been lifted for right-handed Tim Leary, according to Phillie Manager John Felske.

“His hitting doesn’t surprise me,” Felske said. “He’s a good athlete all the way around.”

Maybe the injury-ridden Boston Celtics could ask him about slipping into a uniform for the NBA Championship Series against the Lakers. Nah, that’s the Forum. It’s Dodger Stadium that Rawley likes.