Early Wake Up: Giants Believe They’ll Catch Rest of Division Sleeping

Was it the coffee and doughnuts being served in the visitor’s clubhouse at Dodger Stadium Monday morning or was it a hunger of another kind that prompted virtually all 24 players to assemble more than five hours before the first pitch of their 1988 season opener with the Dodgers?

“The bus left our hotel at 10:30 and there were only two players on it,” third baseman Kevin Mitchell said in the wake of his team’s 5-1 victory over the Dodgers.

“I’m usually the first one in the clubhouse, but when I got here at 8 it was already full.

“We’ve got so much confidence that we couldn’t wait to get going. It’s a good feeling. We knew we were ready.”

The Giants have been saying as much all spring, predicting that they will be superior to the team that won the National League West last year before losing the playoffs to the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games.

They will be better, they reasoned, on the basis of that experience, the acquisition of a bona fide leadoff hitter, Brett Butler, and the presence from opening day of the four pitchers acquired in midsummer of last year: Dave Dravecky, Rick Reuschel, Craig Lefferts and Don Robinson.

Who needed an opening day wake-up call?

Obviously not the eager, enthused and early arriving Giants, who may have gotten one anyway, adding octane to that full tank of intensity.

Steve Sax, the Dodgers leadoff hitter, did the pumping, hammering Dravecky’s first pitch into the field-level seats, after which he circled the bases with his right fist raised.

Said Mitchell: “He walked right around with his fist up. I think that fired us up that much more.”

Said Butler, Sax’s counterpart: “What he did ticked off a few of our guys, but I know where he was coming from. You want to get out of the box. You want to get that first hit. I mean, a home run on the first pitch. What a way to open the season. I don’t blame him.”

Neither did Dravecky, who shook off that rude beginning, retired the next 11 batters in order, did not allow another hit until there was one out in the sixth inning and required only 92 pitches in wrapping up a 3-hitter in which he walked only 1 and struck out 3.

This was why the Giants arrived at 8 Monday morning. This was an illustration of why they are so confident about the 161 games that follow.

There was masterful pitching, solid defense and aggressive hitting from a lineup that had no problems with Fernando Valenzuela or the absence of the inimitable Hac Man, Jeffrey Leonard, who opened the season on the disabled list because of a leg injury.

Butler, in his official debut, merely singled twice, tripled home two runs on a hit and run, and successfully challenged Kirk Gibson’s suspect arm when he tagged and scored from third on Mike Aldrete’s fly to shallow left in the fourth.

“As much as I hated to lose Chili Davis (who went to the Angels as a free agent), this guy gives me more,” Manager Roger Craig said of Butler.

“He’s one of the best leadoff hitters in baseball, a better defensive player than Davis and his speed gives us a dimension we’ve never had before.”

Butler recently said he would be pumped for the opener, hoping to show Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda that he made a mistake when the Dodgers failed to trade for him in the spring of 1987 and then failed to sign him as a free agent last winter.

He wanted to play here, he said, because he is an acknowledged ham who has long been interested in acting and felt the Dodgers represented an obvious stepping stone to the studios and an eventual glossy on the wall of Lasorda’s office.

On Monday, however, Butler shook his head and refused to rub it in.

“I just want to play on the club that wants me,” he said. “The Giants got who they wanted and the Dodgers got who they wanted. I’m happy with the way it turned out.”

So is Craig, of course, though the bottom line on his outspoken confidence is represented by a deep and talented pitching staff, the deepest in the West, he said Monday.

“We were a pretty good club before we got those four guys last year,” he said, “and now we’ve got them from the start. We should be even better.”

Reuschel and Robinson came from Pittsburgh. Dravecky and Lefferts were obtained from San Diego. The four combined for a 20-12 record and 11 saves with the Giants.

Dravecky, who was suspected of having a bad arm last April and opened the season in the San Diego bullpen, has picked up where he left off in the playoffs, when he beat St. Louis, 2-0, and lost, 1-0.

“You can’t pitch much better than he did today,” Craig said.

The 33-year-old Dravecky was 7-5 with San Francisco last year and pitched 21 consecutive scoreless innings during a four-game win streak that began in mid-August. He held left-handed hitters to a league best .142 batting average and restricted the left-handed hitting Kirk Gibson, Mike Davis and Mike Scioscia to a single in 10 at-bats Monday.

“The Dodgers have tremendous talent. They are a club to be reckoned with,” he said. “It was obviously important that I come in and establish a pattern, that I keep the ball off the center of the plate.

“It was important that I force the Dodgers to adjust to me rather than the other way around.”

Dravecky said he credited Sax with adjusting to an inside fastball, hardly noticed his fist pumping tour, bore down on the next hitter and quickly “locked in” to catcher Bob Melvin, who starts ahead of Bob Brenly when close friend Dravecky is pitching. Dravecky shook off Melvin only on the last pitch of the game and said he had tunnel vision for all nine innings, seeing only Melvin and not the hitter.

“It was like going out and throwing to no one expect the catcher,” he said.

Said Craig: “I could catch Dravecky with the control he’s got, but those two have such confidence in each other that Dave could start winding up and Melvin would know what’s coming.”

The manager thinks that he, too, knows what’s coming, but it was reassuring to win the opener.

“It may be overrated to the other manager, but not to the winning manager, especially on the road and against a great pitcher,” Craig said. “We know we have a great club but know we have to prove it. We’ve been pointing to this all spring.”

That was obvious as early as 8 a.m. Monday. With a 7:05 start tonight, the Giants can sleep in, then lunch in the clubhouse.