Danny Jackson Pitches Cincinnati Past Dodgers, 5-2

Bidding for the National League’s Cy Young Award, Danny Jackson put some pressure on Orel Hershiser Friday night and helped the Cincinnati Reds put a little more on the Dodgers.

Jackson, obtained in a preseason trade that sent shortstop Kurt Stillwell to the Kansas City Royals, improved his record to 21-4 overall and 3-0 against the Dodgers by pitching the Reds to a 5-2 victory before a Dodger Stadium crowd of 42,557.

The victory enabled the Reds to move to within 5 1/2 games of the Dodgers in the National League West.

Jackson scattered nine hits and allowed only one earned run as he pitched his 14th complete game, tops in the National League.

“He’s a stud,” Manager Pete Rose said of his ace left hander. “I think he’ll win the Cy Young and I think he should. He’s been dominating since the start of spring training. The Louisville Slugger Company must love him.”

Rose alluded to the number of bats Jackson breaks, not to mention hitters’ hearts. He had restricted the opposition to a .210 batting average before facing the Dodgers, who have scored two runs or less in five of their last seven games.

Hershiser will attempt to stay in the Cy Young race tonight when he pits his 19-8 record against the Reds.

Ramon Martinez (1-2) lasted only 2 innings as the Dodger starter Friday night. Three walks and a pair of two-run doubles by Eric Davis and Paul O’Neill produced four runs in the third, when Martinez departed.

His troubles may have developed in the second, however, when he tried to bare-hand a shot up the middle by O’Neill and required several minutes to recover from the discomfort. He was later taken to Centinela Valley Medical Center for x-rays.

The Reds arrived with a 39-24 record since June 30, a span in which their pitchers boasted a 2.89 earned-run average.

“We’ve played ourselves into a position where we have a chance,” Rose said before the game. “A lot of teams don’t have a chance.

“We have 23 games left and can win a lot of them if we hit. Things can change in a hurry.”

Did he deem a sweep of the Dodgers mandatory?

“I’m not going to come up to a team that’s 20 games over .500 and say we have to sweep,” Rose said. “We’ve just got to play well against them.”

On Aug. 11, when the Dodgers last saw the Reds in Cincinnati, Rose had said that the young Dodger pitchers would fold under pressure and that he felt his team was chasing Houston and San Francisco rather than Los Angeles.

“I didn’t mean it disrespectfully,” Rose explained Friday night. “All I was saying was that when you take a Fernando Valenzuela off a pitching staff it puts more pressure on a Tim Leary and Ramon Martinez and Tim Belcher.

“They didn’t have John Tudor then and I didn’t know they were going to get him. They’ve withstood the challenges and I give them credit.”

Jackson posed a considerable challenge, particularly when the Reds gave him a 4-1 lead while chasing Martinez in the third inning.

The Dodgers had provided the 20-year-old right-hander with a 1-0 advantage in the first on a single by Steve Sax, a sacrifice by Alfredo Griffin, a ground-out that put Sax on third and an infield single by Mike Marshall, who returned to the lineup after missing nine games with a pulled leg muscle.

Martinez had two outs and a runner on via a walk in the third when he issued two more walks to load the bases for Eric Davis, who came in hitting .321 since the All-Star break.

Davis promptly drilled a two-run double to left. Martinez left in favor of left-hander Rickey Horton, who was tagged for another two-run double by the left-handed hitting O’Neill, who is suddenly becoming a Dodger nemesis. The double gave O’Neill 19 hits in 46 at bats against the Dodgers this year, not to mention 12 RBIs.

Jackson was still leading 4-1 in the fifth when back to back throwing errors by shortstop Barry Larkin contributed to an unearned run, making it 4-2.

An inning later, the Dodgers came within inches of tying it, only to have Davis, switched from center field to right to take the pressure off an ailing leg, make a reaching, back-pedaling catch of a slicing drive hit by Rick Dempsey with two on and two out.

The Reds then extended their lead to 5-2 in the seventh, scoring an unearned run off Jesse Orosco. Kal Daniels doubled with one out and scored when first baseman Mickey Hatcher failed to catch a throw from third baseman Jeff Hamilton on a grounder hit by Davis.

Dodger Notes

Manager Tom Lasorda said the Dodgers would ask the National League office to inspect the 12 baseballs that the club collected during Nolan Ryan’s 2-1 victory Thursday night and which carry possible scuff marks that Lasorda has circled in ink . . . Coach Joe Ferguson said he believes Ryan keeps a new and improved type of white sandpaper in his glove and scuffs every ball, though the mark is difficult to detect with the new paper. “I’ll tell you this,” Ferguson said. “Ryan is throwing a pitch that drops two feet and he never had that before.” . . . Why don’t the umpires intercede? “The rule now requires a pitcher to be caught in the act, whatever that means,” Ferguson said. “The scuffed ball isn’t enough. They might as well let every pitcher do it.”

Reds’ Owner Marge Schott has continued sniping at Pete Rose to the Cincinnati Press, saying this week that the highest paid manager in baseball should be expected to produce a championship and that Rose may be in line for a pay cut and a one-year contract if he is re-signed. Rose said Friday night that he isn’t worried about his managerial status, believing the situation will be ironed out when the season ends. “No one can tell me we haven’t made a turnaround since I became manager,” he said. “I took over the Titanic, but I won’t rest until we win. If we play the way I think we’re capable of the next two weeks, I’ll be asking for a pay raise, not taking a cut.”