All-Star Game Called by Raines in 13th Inning : His Triple Gives the NL 2-0 Victory

The lively ball died amid the shadows of the Oakland Coliseum Tuesday night.

Send condolences to the Rawlings factory in Haiti, but attach an asterisk to it.

Neither the ball nor the players who hit it had any real chance to show their renowned talents as the 58th All-Star game marked the return of “The Twilight Zone” to TV.

The game started at 5:35 amid bright sunlight. By the fourth inning, however, the twilight shadows covered the field.

The futility that followed reached embarrassing levels.

It took the American and National League All-Stars 11 innings before combining to reach double digits in hits.

It took 13 innings before they scored a run. The lights, in fact, had finally taken hold when the Montreal Expos’ Tim Raines drilled a two-run triple off the Oakland A’s Jay Howell to give the National League a 2-0 victory. What’s new?

The National leads the series, 37-20-1 and has won 14 of the last 16 games and 22 of the last 25. The outcome was preordained once the game reached extra innings. The National is 8-0 in overtime. This one was the second-longest in time and third-longest in innings.

National League Manager Davey Johnson used all 28 of his players. His American League counterpart, Boston’s John McNamara, was left with only pitchers Bruce Hurst and Mike Witt, who had worked seven innings in the Angels’ 5-4 victory over the Detroit Tigers Sunday.

Raines, 0 for 7 in his previous All-Star appearances, was named the most valuable player for two reasons:

--He had three hits, having singled twice before his triple.

--He stepped forward to supply the merciful conclusion.

Singles by Ozzie Virgil and Hubie Brooks preceded Raines’ two-out drive to left center. Raines waved his right arm exultantly when he reached third.

It was almost as if he was delivering a message to all those clubs--the Dodgers among them--who had rejected his free-agent availability, forcing him to return to the Expos on May 1.

The late signing prevented his name from appearing on the All-Star ballot. A .346 average reaffirmed his ability and resulted in his selection as a reserve.

A partisan crowd of 49,671, the largest ever for a baseball game here, had little to cheer except the three plate appearances of local hero Mark McGwire, who flied deep to right, struck out and grounded to the pitcher.

No shame in that.

“It was almost impossible to see,” National League outfielder Darryl Strawberry said. Teammate Mike Schmidt agreed.

“You can’t pick up the spin or the rotation,” Schmidt said. “It’s just not the best time to start a game, but the obvious concern is for TV and not the hitters.”

It wasn’t until the decisive 13th that either side collected more than one hit in an inning. The National had eight hits and the American six. There were 17 strikeouts. Kirby Puckett, a .337 hitter with the Minnesota Twins, struck out three times in three at-bats.

Said Jack Morris, who pitched the fourth and fifth innings for the American League after Bret Saberhagen set the tone by allowing only one hit in the first three:

“I could hardly see the plate, so I can’t imagine what the hitters could see.”

Johnson used up his manpower when he summoned Sid Fernandez to pitch the bottom of the 13th after the Chicago Cubs’ Lee Smith had gone three innings, striking out four in a shadowy mismatch.

“I’ll probably get a telegram from Gene Michael,” Johnson said, alluding to the Cubs’ manager. “I only wanted to use him for two innings. I hated to use him three. Maybe Michael will thank me for straightening him out.”

Orel Hershiser was a comparable success in his first All-Star appearance. The Dodger right-hander held the American League scoreless in the fifth and sixth innings and later called it one of his career highlights. Of the shutout, he cited the twilight, the hitters’ unfamiliarity with the pitcher and “plain old good pitching. I think we wanted to prove we could live with this ball.”

Dodger teammate Pedro Guerrero popped out as a pinch-hitter in the 10th.

There were two key fielding plays by the National League:

--Dave Winfield had led off the AL second with a double. Then Cal Ripken ripped a line drive on which first baseman Jack Clark made a leaping catch to prevent a run, then doubled Winfield off second.

--The AL had Winfield at second and Dwight Evans at first with one out in the ninth when Harold Reynolds grounded to first baseman Keith Hernandez, who threw to Brooks for the force at second. Pitcher Steve Bedrosian was late coming off the mound but made a sprawling catch of Brooks’ return throw to first, scrambled to his feet and fired to the plate, where Virgil short-hopped his accurate throw and withstood a stunning collision with the 6-foot 6-inch, 220-pound Winfield to record the third out and preserve the scoreless tie.

Said Virgil, who had raised his right arm triumphantly after the earthquake:

“That was a lot of beef hitting me, but I had to stand in and take the hit. It was do or die.”

It was also the loudest hit until Raines tripled.