Clark Delivers the Damage for Giants as Dodgers’ Bullpen Roughed Up in Loss

In one game Tuesday night, Will Clark did as much damage against the Dodgers as he had in all of 1988.

And if the Dodgers were wondering how the Giant first baseman led the league in runs batted in last season, they found out Tuesday, when Clark drove in five runs with two doubles and a three-run home run, carrying San Francisco to an 8-3 win over the Dodgers before a crowd of 17,722 in Candlestick Park.

The Dodger bullpen, which had not allowed an earned run in relief until Alejandro Pena balked home a run Monday night, yielded five straight hits in the seventh, when the Giants broke open the game with four runs.

Giant reliever Craig Lefferts, meanwhile, struck out Eddie Murray with the score 4-3 and the tying run on second base in the seventh, and retired all seven Dodgers he faced to save a victory for starter Kelly Downs.

Ricky Horton, who relieved Dodger starter Tim Leary, walked Chris Speier to open the bottom of the seventh. Brett Butler sacrificed, and Robby Thompson and Clark followed with consecutive doubles, giving the Giants a 6-3 lead and knocking Horton out of the game.

Tim Crews fared no better, yielding a single to Kevin Mitchell, a double to Candy Maldonado, and a single by Terry Kennedy before retiring a batter.

Clark, whose three-run homer off Leary in the bottom of the fifth wiped out a 2-1 Dodger lead, was the first Giant to lead the league in RBIs since Willie McCovey in 1969. His 109 RBIs a year ago were the most by any Giant in 18 years, and he became only the third player in Giant history--joining Mel Ott and McCovey--to register 100 runs scored, 100 RBIs and 100 walks in the same season.

“Get out the sailboats,” said Dodger infielder Dave Anderson, listing to starboard after stepping into a blast of the Candlestick draft Tuesday.

This series marks the first visit here for Willie Randolph, but the career American Leaguer was making a conscious effort to ignore the elements.

“I learned you had to do that a long time ago,” said Randolph, who had two hits in the Dodgers’ 7-4 win here Monday and who knocked in a run with a hit-and-run single in the fifth, when the Dodgers took a 2-1 lead Tuesday.

“Actually, I was kind of nostalgic about coming here,” Randolph said. “I was a Willie Mays fan when I was growing up as a kid, and this is where Willie used to roam.”

Though wind chill factors don’t even register with Leary--after all, he once played in Milwaukee--more than one of his pitches roamed off course Tuesday. One was the 55-foot wild pitch he threw to Terry Kennedy in the second inning that missed the plate by a good yard, though it produced nothing but a few chuckles among the frozen fans.

The other two were redirected by the bat of Clark, who had left his bat on his shoulder the night before, when he came up to the plate with the tying runs on base against Alejandro Pena and took a called third strike, ending the game.

In the first, Clark launched an opposite-field double to left, driving in Thompson, who had walked, with the Giants’ first run.

In the fifth, after singles by Giant starter Downs and Thompson, the left-handed swinging Clark went inside-out on Leary again, this time sending a 3-and-1 pitch over the left-field fence for his second home run of the season.

Leary, who had pitched a five-hitter to beat the Reds in Cincinnati, left for a pinch-hitter in the seventh after a yield of seven hits and four runs. He walked one and struck out three.

The man who batted for Leary, Mariano Duncan, singled and scored on Kirk Gibson’s double to bring the Dodgers briefly within a run, 4-3, before the Dodger bullpen disintegrated.

Eddie Murray, who hit a ninth-inning grand slam to win Monday’s game, came up again with the bases loaded in the fifth against Downs, who tempted fate by walking Gibson with first base open. Murray hit the ball well, but it carried only as far as the left-field warning track, where Kevin Mitchell made the catch. Duncan scored on the sacrifice, but Downs got Mike Marshall on a called third strike to end the inning.

Downs had put himself in the jam with a throwing error on Leary’s bunt.

Dodger Notes

Alfredo Griffin, a .366 hitter in spring, ended an 0-for-17 string with a third-inning double. Last April, Griffin hit .183. . . . In a reprise of her World Series performance, Nancy Reagan will throw out the first ball in the Dodgers’ home opener on Thursday. Kenny Loggins will sing the national anthem. . . . The Giants gave ex-Padre Rich Gossage a tryout Tuesday, and Manager Roger Craig said he will recommend that the team sign the 37-year-old pitcher, released by San Diego this spring.