Valenzuela Powerless in Dodger Loss

Fernando Valenzuela made his second start of the season Wednesday night, and the reviews were devastating, even if the score--Giants 3, Dodgers 1--was not.

Valenzuela’s critics weren’t of the pressbox variety, either. These opinion-makers had bats, not pens, in hand, which they wielded with little mercy.

“Man, I don’t have no feelings for no one,” said Giant third baseman Kevin Mitchell, when asked if he had any compassion for the Dodger left-hander attempting to recover from serious shoulder problems.

Mitchell certainly showed no sympathy in the first inning, when he hit a towering three-run homer off Valenzuela that accounted for all of the Giants’ runs. The home run over the left-field fence came on a 3-and-0 pitch from Valenzuela, who said he threw a fastball to Mitchell, which came as shocking news to the Giants’ cleanup hitter.

“I didn’t realize that was a fastball he threw me,” Mitchell said. “It didn’t have nothing on it.

“If that was a fastball, he’s lost a lot on it. Is there something wrong with his arm?”

Mitchell, whose home run followed a drag-bunt single by Brett Butler and a line single by Robby Thompson, said that even after Valenzuela went 3 and 0 on him, he still was looking for the screwball.

“That’s because he usually pitches me backwards,” said Mitchell, referring to Valenzuela’s pattern in the past of using his fastball to set up the screwball.

If Mitchell couldn’t see a difference in the speed of Valenzuela’s fastball compared to his screwball, how fast could his fastball have been?

“I couldn’t tell you,” Mitchell said, “but it wasn’t fast.

“He had great movement on his screwball, but his fastball had nothing on it.”

But Mitchell even saw a problem with Valenzuela’s screwball. In the past, he said, the Dodger left-hander would consistently hit the outside corner with his screwball to right-handed hitters. “Now, he can’t get it there no more,” Mitchell said. “It just kind of dies out there.”

Wait a minute: If Valenzuela can’t throw his screwball for strikes, and his fastball has nothing on it, what’s a hitter to do?

Mitchell smiled.

“Just sit on everything off-speed,” he said, “because you know he can’t get the fastball by you.

“Just sit back.”

If Valenzuela was as helpless as Mitchell described, it’s a wonder he was able to survive almost four more innings unscathed. He pitched out of a two-on, no-out jam in the third, retiring Mitchell on a foul pop in the process; retired the side in order in the second and fourth, and left only because the Dodgers had decided he’d thrown enough pitches following Will Clark’s single with two out in the fifth.

“Fernando’s such a competitor,” Clark said, “he’s not going to let anyone get him out of the starting rotation. He’s still a tough pitcher.”

But even Clark, who struck out and walked in his other at-bats against Valenzuela, acknowledged that the Dodger left-hander isn’t as tough as he once was.

“Last year when I faced him, especially late in the year, the first thing that went through my mind was: ‘He’s a totally different pitcher now,’ ” Clark said.

“In 1986, when I was a rookie, he used to throw a harder screwball, it used to bite more. Now it’s still a screwball, but it just sort of rolls over.

“In ‘86, I never saw a slider from Fernando. Now I see tons of sliders from him. Maybe in his mind he knows he’s lost a few feet on his fastball, and he’s come up with a new gimmick to get out hitters.”

The Dodger hitters could have used a gimmick or two Wednesday night to score some runs for Valenzuela, who also got only one run to pitch with in his first start, a 6-1 loss to Atlanta last Friday. This time, the Dodgers scored their only run in the first inning on singles by Willie Randolph and Mike Marshall, and even then, only crossed signals between first baseman Clark and second baseman Thompson on a catchable foul fly gave Marshall another chance to drive in the run.

Giant starter Scott Garrelts and three relievers stopped the Dodgers on five hits, all singles. Rookie Jeff Brantley, who played with Clark at Mississippi State, replaced Garrelts in the sixth, after walks to Kirk Gibson and Eddie Murray, and induced Marshall to ground sharply into a rally-killing double play.

In the Dodgers’ defense, as they wearily boarded a plane home Wednesday night, they can hardly be blamed for wondering which comes first--their home opener or the All-Star break.

Even before they set foot in Dodger Stadium, which they finally will do this afternoon against the Houston Astros, the Dodgers have played in three cities, three other home openers, and lost five games, which is two more than they’ve won.

“The worst schedule I’ve ever seen in the history of baseball,” Mickey Hatcher said.

“To go from spring training without a day off to California for three days then to Cincinnati. We just can’t wait to get home.”