Dodger Notebook : Tigers Rock Hershiser, but He Rolls With It

It was no more than fitting that a player whose name rhymes with Caped Crusader acted like Batman against the Dodgers Monday.

Scott Lusader is an obscure outfielder who doesn’t figure to stick with the Detroit Tigers, but in this one meaningless exhibition game, he was the master of the top pitcher in baseball.

Believe it, folks, it happened. Lusader went to bat twice against Dodger ace Orel Hershiser, and hit a home run each time. They were monstrous home runs, too, the first hitting high off the scoreboard in right field and the second soaring even higher to the right of the scoreboard.

And Lusader wasn’t alone in his mistreatment of the man who last year pitched a record 59 consecutive scoreless innings, won the Cy Young Award and was the most valuable player in both the National League playoffs and the World Series. All told, the Tigers mauled Hershiser for 10 hits and 10 runs, nine earned, in five innings en route to an 11-3 victory.

Still, Lusader was unchallenged as Hershiser’s principal tormentor. Serving as Detroit’s designated hitter, he opened with a two-run home run in the second inning, then hit a three-run shot an inning later.

His turn at bat came up again in the fifth, but Manager Sparky Anderson sent up a pinch-hitter.

Although classified as a rookie, Lusader has hit two official home runs in the major leagues. He connected against Jim Clancy and Rick Rhoden--no patsies, either--in late-season trials the last two years.

Mostly, though, Lusader has been struggling to win a big league job, and his .269 and .261 averages at triple-A Toledo haven’t helped.

Anderson summed up Lusader’s situation by saying: “He’ll probably be at Toledo again. He’s a good-looking prospect, but he needs that one good year in triple A.”

Surprisingly, Lusader didn’t seem the least bit excited about his feat.

“It was just one day,” he said. “Hershiser may go out and win his next 18 games. All it means is that my outlook is brighter than it was an hour and a half ago.”

When reporters tried to get him to say his two home runs meant something, he said, “You guys are getting too deep for me.”

To Hershiser, whose only concern at the moment is getting in shape for opening day, the bombing was something he could afford to take lightly. He had given up only one run in seven previous exhibition innings.

“Everything I did out there was about 75% of what I can do,” Hershiser said. “I wasn’t really trying. I don’t want to embarrass the Tigers, because they hit the ball well, but all I was working on was getting my body in the right position to throw the ball. It wasn’t that big a deal.”

As for Lusader’s home runs, Hershiser said: “He hit fastball, fastball. I guess that’s what he thinks of my fastball.”

Hershiser added that, as effortlessly as he was pitching, he could have gone nine innings.

Told of that, pitching coach Ron Perranoski said, “Yeah, but he would have been out long before that.”

Take it from Anderson, the Dodgers got a gem when they obtained first baseman Eddie Murray from the Baltimore Orioles.

“You talk about consistency,” Anderson said. “This guy’s the best player the Dodgers have had in 10 years. Let me show you what an off season is for Eddie Murray: a .284 average, 28 home runs and 84 runs batted in. That’s what he did in one of his worst seasons--1988. Believe me, at 33 he’s as good as he ever was.”

Dodger Notes

Sparky Anderson was none too complimentary of the Dodgers’ pitching staff. “All of a sudden they’ve gone from outstanding pitching to mediocre pitching,” he said. “John Tudor won’t pitch for a long time, and they tell me (Fernando) Valenzuela isn’t looking too good. They can fill in with fourth and fifth starters in October, but don’t tell me they can do it from the start of the season.”

Valenzuela has a 12.60 earned-run average, and is so frustrated that he has sworn off talking with reporters because he says they bug him too much about his arm problem. He is scheduled to start against the Cincinnati Reds in Vero Beach today.

The newly acquired Mike Morgan made his Dodger debut against the Tigers, yielding one run on three hits in two innings. He said afterward: “I had things pretty much under control. I wasn’t real sharp, but I wasn’t terrible, either.” Pitching coach Ron Perranoski said, “He threw the ball well.”

Alfredo Griffin had two more hits for the Dodgers, raising his average from .556 to .567. . . . Mariano Duncan played his first game in center field and survived the experience without incident. . . . Mike Marshall, who has a slight case of shin splints, was scheduled to start in right field but never got there. He left after lining out in the first inning, and Manager Tom Lasorda said, “He just wanted to get one at-bat.”