Big Moment for Crews as Dodgers Beat Braves

The way Tim Crews reacted Sunday afternoon, you might have thought he had won the Masters, but that was up the road a piece.

Good thing, too, because the protocol marshals probably would have escorted the excitable Crews right off the Augusta course for acting in such an unbecoming fashion, leaping and thrusting his fist in the air.

Then again, it’s not every day that Crews saves a Dodger game, as he did Sunday in the Dodgers’ 4-2 win in 12 innings over the Atlanta Braves. It’s not even every year.

The Dodger reliever, who slipped a called third strike past Atlanta’s (not so) dangerous Dale Murphy with the tying runs on base to end the game, went all of 1988 without so much as a single save. That’s a statistic hard to come by when you’re a middle reliever, and even harder to come by in the playoffs and World Series--especially when you’ve been left off the postseason roster, as Crews was last October.

So, even if it might have looked as if he had just won the seventh game of the World Series, Crews hopes you understand. He especially hoped Murphy did, too.

“That’s the first time I’ve ever reacted that way,” said Crews, who probably would have blushed if he weren’t so flushed with pleasure at what he’d done.

“I just overreacted a little bit, but I went a long time without an opportunity to save a game.

“I wish I hadn’t done that, especially to a great player like Murphy. I didn’t want to be insulting to him. I know it didn’t look too good.”

If Crews was concerned about showing up Murphy, he needn’t have. He was no more embarrassing to Atlanta’s struggling slugger than Braves left-hander Zane Smith was to the Dodger hitters.

Going into the seventh inning, Smith--whose fifth-inning single touched off a two-run rally that broke a scoreless tie--had one more hit than the Dodger lineup, which had been silenced two nights earlier by another young Atlanta pitcher, Tom Glavine, who had thrown a four-hit complete game.

Surprised? You shouldn’t be, according to Mike Marshall, who timed his return from a two-game absence due to a sore left knee just right, stroking a ground ball through the left side with two out in the seventh to break up Smith’s no-hit bid, then coming around to score on John Shelby’s single and Jeff Hamilton’s double.

“I’ve been saying since Day One of spring training that the National League West is the best division in baseball,” Marshall said. “Everybody has good pitching, and nobody’s an easy mark, including the Braves. They have some terrific young arms.”

Rick Dempsey’s attempt to put the Dodgers ahead with a home run died on the left-field warning track, but at least the Dodgers had seen the last of Smith, who parted for a pinch-hitter in the bottom of the inning.

Braves reliever Joe Boever was on the mound in the eighth, when the Dodgers succeeded in tying the score with the help of Braves third baseman Ron Gant, who dropped Alfredo Griffin’s popped-up bunt for an error. That put Willie Randolph--who had singled--in position to score when Kirk Gibson’s soft liner escaped the leap of Braves second baseman Jeff Treadway.

Griffin went to third on Gibson’s hit, and when Gibson stole second, the Braves decided to pitch to Eddie Murray with first base open. That strategy worked when Braves first baseman Gerald Perry fielded Murray’s one-hop smash and threw home in time to nail Griffin, who was tagged out in a rundown.

Griffin had been given a sign to run on contact; Gibson, who apparently didn’t see the sign, remained on second, where he was still standing when Marshall flied to right.

While Mike Morgan--who struck out the side in the seventh--and short relievers Jay Howell and Alejandro Pena, both making their ’89 debuts, kept alive the bullpen’s streak of not allowing an earned run, the Dodgers wasted a leadoff double by Mike Scioscia in the 10th. After an infield out moved Scioscia to third, Manager Tom Lasorda called for a suicide squeeze, which turned into a twin killing when Griffin popped up yet another bunt.

“I just didn’t do the things I was supposed to do,” Griffin said. “It’s better to get those things out of the way earlier than later in the season.”

Pena, pitching despite a head cold that had kept him awake most of the night, put himself in harm’s way in the bottom of the 10th when he hit Lonnie Smith with a pitch, then failed to react when Tommy Gregg followed with a bunt. Catcher Scioscia pointed frantically at first base, but he might as well have been giving Pena directions to the team bus, for all the good it did him.

“I heard the umpire call a balk, so I thought the ball was dead,” Pena said afterward.

The pitcher kept the Dodgers alive, however, with the help of right fielder Marshall, who made a nice sliding catch of Perry’s liner. Murphy, off to a terrible start this season (.143 through five games), fouled out to catcher Scioscia, and Pena struck out Jody Davis.

In the 12th, Lasorda finally pushed the right buttons, as Shelby followed Jeff Hamilton’s leadoff single with a perfectly executed hit-and-run single, sending Shelby to third. The left-handed hitting Franklin Stubbs was available, but Lasorda chose to send Mickey Hatcher to pinch-hit for Pena, and Hatcher responded with a sacrifice fly to right, breaking the tie.

Scioscia singled Hamilton to third and the Dodgers added another run when rookie right-fielder Gregg--in a burst of inadvisable rookie enthusiasm--ran down Randolph’s foul fly, allowing Hamilton to score easily.

Then it was up to Crews, the setup man turned closer for a day. He made it exciting--the Braves had two hits and a walk but didn’t score--which may have been why he was so demonstrative when Murphy watched a 3-2 fastball fly by.

“All I’d showed him were breaking balls,” Crews said, “but with the count full I had to go to the fastball. I’ve got to believe he was looking for the curve ball.”

Whatever Murphy was looking for, he was left listening to boos, almost an act of heresy here, where he is regarded as a demigod. Crews, meanwhile, recorded a personal best in the high jump.