With Gooden Well, Mets Get Better : Dodgers Lose, 7-1, as Tudor Exits After 6

The New York Mets said last week that pitcher Dwight Gooden had soreness in his right shoulder. They speculated that he might be put on the disabled list, that throwing all those fastballs at such a young age had taken its toll. They have prescribed arm exercises and hope he will return to form.

Try convincing the Dodgers, skeptics all, of that.

“Yeah, nice deke,” Dodger slugger Kirk Gibson said. “That was the best I’ve ever seen him throw.”

“Sore shoulder, my . . . ,” teammate Mickey Hatcher said. “He threw one by me 95 miles per hour.”

“Right, it only hurts him when he opens the window, probably,” Manager Tom Lasorda said.

Dominating as usual against the Dodgers, Gooden and the Mets cruised to a 7-1 victory Monday night in front of a Dodger Stadium crowd of 49,342.

The loss was the Dodgers’ sixth in seven games with the Mets this season, a somewhat unexpected development because the Dodgers had been streaking and the Mets had been stumbling.

But this was a night of breaking streaks, as the Mets ended a four-game losing streak and the Dodgers’ season-high seven-game winning streak was halted.

In the process, the Dodgers’ lead in the West was reduced to 4 1/2 games over the Houston Astros and San Francisco Giants, who are tied for second place. The Mets are 4 1/2 games ahead of the second-place Pittsburgh Pirates in the East.

In contrast to Gooden’s usually impressive performance against the Dodgers, recently acquired Dodger pitcher John Tudor had an unusually rough outing against the Mets. Tudor (7-6) gave up home runs to Keith Hernandez and Kevin McReynolds. Tudor was also hurt by Tim Teufel’s three-run double that would have been a routine fly-ball out if not for a mix-up between left fielder Gibson and center fielder John Shelby.

“When you have the (good) stuff I had and still get beat, you’re even dumber,” said Tudor, who had pitched a complete-game win in his first outing for the Dodgers. “I had a lot better stuff than my first start. But I’m not saying I had good enough stuff to win, because the way Gooden was throwing, nobody could beat him.”

Even the slightest twinge of pain in Gooden’s valuable right arm is cause for concern among the Mets, who took precautions after Gooden complained of shoulder soreness after his last start.

Monday night, however, it was a case of Dr. K heal thyself. Gooden, who has a 1.23 earned-run average in 11 career starts against the Dodgers, allowed eight hits and had a shutout until tiring in the ninth inning. He struck out eight hitters, his most since a June 17 game, and walked just one to improve his record to 15-6.

Perhaps most important to the Mets, Gooden came out of the start feeling little pain in the back part of his shoulder, which had bothered him after a 13-6 victory over San Francisco last Tuesday.

“I felt it only a couple of times, when I really reared back,” Gooden said. “But (the pain) left.”

Pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre and Gooden had sort of an unspoken system worked out to gauge Gooden’s fitness throughout the game. After each inning, Stottlemyre would ask Gooden how he felt, and Gooden would only nod in agreement.

The Dodgers, however, were shaking their heads in dismay all night, not only at Gooden’s effectiveness but also at their own shoddy play.

Before the ninth inning, the Dodgers’ only threat was in the seventh inning, when Shelby and Franklin Stubbs had consecutive two-out singles. But Gooden struck out Tracy Woodson to end the threat, such as it was.

Tiring in the ninth, Gooden yielded a one-out double to Mickey Hatcher. Then, Mike Marshall, who had three hits, singled in Hatcher to spoil Gooden’s bid for his fourth shutout. Gooden then walked Shelby, but he struck out Stubbs and Woodson to end it.

The Dodgers hardly looked like the team that had won seven straight.

They had a bad night when they couldn’t afford it. It included a mix-up in the outfield between Shelby and Gibson that resulted in three runs in the fifth, a passive offense and a poor outing by Tudor. The Dodgers say they did not acquire Tudor because of his history of defeating the Mets, but it might have been a consideration. Tudor entered Monday night’s start with an 8-4 career record against the Mets and had beaten them June 7 while pitching for St. Louis.

“The past doesn’t help you win ballgames,” Tudor said. “Hernandez hit a good pitch for the home run, but the one to McReynolds was my fault. I threw it right down the middle of the plate. I knew it was gone as soon as he hit it.”

Shelby called the fifth-inning outfield faux pas , which turned the Mets’ 2-0 lead into a 5-0 bulge, a breakdown in communications.

“We were both going after the ball,” Shelby said. “He thought I was going to get it. I thought he was going to get it. That happens sometimes.”

What happened was that Gibson crossed in front of Shelby just as the ball was in Shelby’s line of vision. Shelby crouched and gloved the ball, then dropped it, all three runners scoring in the bases-loaded situation.

“I blew the play, I guess,” Gibson said. “That’s the easiest way to put it. If you’re going to blame somebody, blame me. The play should have been made, and it wasn’t. Going into it in any detail really serves no purpose.”

That is sort of the way the Dodgers felt about the entire game Monday night.

“It’s just one loss,” Lasorda said. “We’ll come back tomorrow and maybe we’ll win. I’m confident in our team.”

Especially since the Dodgers don’t have to face Gooden a second time.

Dodger Notes

Pitcher Mario Soto, rehabilitating from right shoulder surgery in 1986, will make his first start in a rehabilitation assignment tonight for Bakersfield, the Dodgers’ Class-A affiliate, against Modesto. Soto has pitched five simulated games, with mixed results. But Soto and Dodger management think he has progressed enough with his delivery and velocity to face live hitters. However, chances are slim that the Dodgers will activate Soto before Sept. 1. “I just want to get the work in,” Soto said. “I just go one day at a time. I don’t think about how long I’ll do this. I’ll just keep on working, and if I have to go back for more games, I will. I’m not pushing anything. If I pitch well and they figure I’m ready, I’ll do what they say.” In tonight’s start, Soto said he will have a 60- to 70-pitch limit, about the same amount he threw in his simulated games against Dodger reserves.

Jeff Hamilton, on the disabled list with a cartilage separation in a rib, said Monday he hopes to return to the lineup sometime during the Dodgers’ upcoming four-city trip. Hamilton, however, still feels pain in his left side while stretching his arm during swimming. “That shows me he’s still a few days away,” assistant trainer Charlie Strasser said. “If he feels the pressure of water, then he might aggravate it reaching for a ground ball.” Said Hamilton, who pitched batting practice again Monday: “The pain is not so bad that I can’t bear it and play. But I don’t want to take away from my game and maybe aggravate it again. I can see coming back soon (on the trip), but I’ll have to talk to (the trainers) about their plans for me.”

Dodger coach Bill Russell, who has managerial aspirations, will manage the Licey team in the Dominican Republic winter league after this season. Fellow Dodger coach Joe Ferguson will assist Russell. . . . The Mets will be without Manager Davey Johnson for the entire series. Johnson’s mother has been ill, and he returned Monday to a hospital in San Antonio to be with her. Coaches Bud Harrelson and Mel Stottlemyre will manage the team during the series. . . . Dodger rookie Ramon Martinez, who has allowed two earned runs in 14 innings in his first two major league starts, will try for his first win tonight against the Mets’ David Cone (12-3).