Dodgers Win With Second Comeback, 3-2 : Duncan’s Hit in 10th Decides It After Young Lets Lead Get Away

One comeback a night apparently is not enough to insure a win for those unpredictable Dodgers, who sometimes have a knack for losing leads almost as quickly as they can gain them.

So, after Mike Marshall’s two-run home run in the seventh inning gave the Dodgers a 2-1 lead over the Pittsburgh Pirates and Matt Young’s shaky relief pitching in the ninth made it 2-2, the Dodgers needed a 10th inning to score a 3-2 win Friday night before a crowd of 28,466 at Dodger Stadium.

Reclaiming a lead is always much tougher than losing one. But the Dodgers rebounded impressively in the extra inning as Mariano Duncan delivered a bases-loaded single off Pirate reliever Don Robinson to score Franklin Stubbs with the winning run.

“I had a good feeling we were going to get it back in the 10th,” said Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda, who liked the end result, no matter how it came about.

It was the Dodgers’ third straight win, their second in the second half of the season. The Dodgers (41-49) are only a half-game out of fourth place in the National League West and seven behind leader Cincinnati.

“In the end, everything worked out all right,” Lasorda said. “And that’s all that counted.”

This victory, however, certainly was more harrowing than Thursday night’s 7-0 blowout of the Pirates.

The enduring image of Friday night’s game for the Dodgers could have been Marshall’s seventh-inning home run off Rick Reuschel, which erased the Pirates’ 1-0 lead against Dodger starter Bob Welch.

But Young was unable to hold the lead when called upon to replace Welch in the ninth.

After walking Andy Van Slyke on four straight pitches to lead off the ninth and then giving up a single to Johnny Ray that put Van Slyke on third base, Young got Sid Bream to ground to second. But the ball was hit slow enough to allow Van Slyke to score from third with the tying run.

Young, who hadn’t pitched since last Saturday, settled down and retired the Pirates without further damage and then pitched a scoreless 10th.

That left it up to the Dodgers to try to win it in the bottom of the 10th, which they did with four straight singles off Robinson. Stubbs and Steve Sax each singled to right, then pinch-hitter Ken Landreuax singled to center, but Stubbs was held at third base. That brought up Duncan, who had gone 0 for 4 earlier Friday.

With the count 0 and 2, Duncan looped a single to center that scored Stubbs and gave Young (5-5) the win. Robinson took the loss for Pittsburgh.

“All I had in mind was to make contact,” Duncan said. “I was surprised he gave me that good a pitch to hit with two strikes.”

While Lasorda was proclaiming that the one-run win, the Dodgers’ 10th in 26 decisions, provided further evidence of a second-half change of fortune, Pirate Manager Jim Leyland was lamenting the loss in a way familiar to the Dodgers.

“Sometimes, it seems like there’s no justice,” Leyland said.

Perhaps the most relieved Dodger after the win was Young, the club’s top reliever who faltered in his quest to preserve Welch’s 5-hitter over 8 innings.

“I messed up,” Young said, offering no excuses. “I had a little trouble finding my release point . . . I wanted to go in there and pitch a 1-2-3 inning.”

Welch, who got a no-decision despite his second straight strong pitching performance, took it well.

“That doesn’t bother me one bit,” Welch said. “The thing we have to do is win ball games. Sure, I would have liked to have the win, but we got to win as a team.

“Besides, I might have given up four runs (in the ninth inning).”

Welch gave up a run in the first inning and, for the longest time, it looked as though he might end up a 1-0 loser. But Marshall finally got to Reuschel in the seventh.

Reuschel, who had not allowed an earned run to the Dodgers in 23 innings, gave up a leadoff double to Pedro Guerrero. Then, he threw a high slider to Marshall, who deposited it in the left-field seats.

Earlier in the game, Guerrero had singled twice off Reuschel, but Marshall had been unable to advance him. Marshall had gone 8 for 44 in his last 12 games before his seventh-inning shot.

“He’s got great stuff and he doesn’t make many mistakes,” Marshall said of Reuschel. “I’ve been going through times the last six or seven games when I haven’t hit well. You’ve just got to keep battling and get through these periods.”

Said Duncan, summing up the growing belief of a second-half comeback among Dodger players: “Right now, we’re looking like a team and playing like a team. We weren’t doing that always before.”

Dodger Notes Friday’s elbow surgery on right-handed pitcher Dan Opperman, the Dodgers’ first-round draft pick this June, turned out to be more serious than originally thought. In addition to removing bone chips from Opperman’s right elbow, Dr. Frank Jobe also had to repair the medial ligament by grafting tissue from another part of the body. Jobe, who said the procedure was similar to Tommy John’s surgery, indicated that Opperman, 18, will not be ready to start pitching again until next spring. The Dodgers had known about Opperman’s previous elbow problems but drafted the hard-throwing right-hander, who had been called a young Bob Welch, eighth overall. He signed for $160,000 and had reported to the rookie league in Great Falls, Mont., before pain in his elbow reappeared. “When we inspected the ligament after taking out the bone chips, the ligament was just too damaged to leave it like it was,” Jobe said. “I think he will be able to pitch. He’s young and that’s in his favor.”

Steve Sax, who left Thursday night’s game early with a strained right shoulder, said the pain was gone when he awoke Friday morning. So, Sax was back at second base without any pregame treatment to the shoulder. “I originally felt something wrong before Thursday’s game,” Sax said. “I don’t know what it was. It wouldn’t get loose. It got progressively tighter. I hope it doesn’t come back.” . . . The Dodgers had been leaning toward using a four-man rotation in coming weeks because of an off-day Monday, and pitching Coach Ron Perranoski confirmed this Friday. That means Fernando Valenzuela, who recorded his first shutout in more than a year Thursday night, will pitch Tuesday night against the St. Louis Cardinals with his standard four days’ rest. . . . Add Valenzuela: Some Pirate players were commenting after Thursday night’s game that Valenzuela had lost speed on his fastball. But Dodger scout Mike Brito, who operates the speed gun behind home plate, said Valenzuela’s fastball hit 89 m.p.h. “And he had great location,” Brito said. . . . Orel Hershiser (10-8) will pitch for the Dodgers against the Pirates’ Doug Drabek (1-8) tonight at 7:05.