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RITE OF SPRING : Murray Says He Seems to Warm Up With the Weather

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Times Staff Writer

Eddie Murray believes that April really is the cruelest month, although the beginning of May is not so great, either. It’s not until mid-May, now that he thinks about it, that his season seems to begin in any kind of earnest. That’s what he says, anyway.

This spring, though young, is shaping up like all the others. The newest Dodger has hit safely in just three of the team’s first nine games and is five for 37.

“A couple of at-bats, I felt like everything was right there,” he said Thursday after his first eventful day in Dodger Stadium. “And then all of a sudden I’m struggling for a stance.”

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Part of it, he said, was Dodger Stadium.

“Have to get comfortable in a new park,” he said after the team’s 4-2 loss to Houston.

This after all was his first official action inside the stadium. His last 12 home openers have been in Baltimore.

Truth be told, though, he seldom seemed to start off so well there, either.

“Just struggling through the early season,” he said afterward, speaking matter-of-factly but without much forcible charm. “Not the first time it’s happened. Usually in May, May 15, I start hitting the ball. Two years I had good Aprils, ‘80, ‘81, I guess. But every spring damn near, maybe nine or 10 . . . same old thing.

“I hope it don’t last that long. It ain’t for lack of trying.”

Murray is a notoriously slow starter, although you might wonder how he could manage a .295 career batting average while discounting two months of the season every year. Last April he hit .207. He rallied to finish with a .284 average. In 1987, true to his claim, he hit only .181 in April. He finished with a .277 average and 30 home runs.

In 1986, he hit .267 in that month, finishing the season at .305. The year before that, .250 in April and a .297 finish.

Then again, he had some better springs than he recalls. He batted .296 in 1984, .316 in 1983 and .441 in April 1982. Doesn’t seem like it’s that much of a pattern.

Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda, informed of Murray’s strange little timetable, didn’t seem to like the news.

“Years are different,” he said hopefully. Then recalling Murray’s grand slam Monday night, he said, “That grand slam, that was before May 15, wasn’t it?”

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Murray certainly had his troubles Thursday, although not all of them were at the plate. The key play, in fact, came in the 15th and final inning when he picked up Bob Forsch’s bunt and threw wildly to second. There was a good chance that Ken Caminiti would have beaten the throw anyway, but the ball, which sailed into center field, was never in play.

“I threw it away,” said Murray, who tossed to second instead of first on catcher Mike Scioscia’s instructions. “I just threw the ball away.”

The possibility was raised that pitcher Ray Searage might have been loitering in the way of a throw to second.

“I just threw it away,” Murray repeated.

It is his reputation to own up to gaffes, it seems, but he owned up to this one about four more times before the question was finally dropped.

All that aside, Murray did have his moments. In his first at-bat, he drove in Dodger run No. 1 with a sacrifice fly. Later, he got two hits. And in the ninth inning, he made a sensational diving stop to keep the game going. Astro Terry Puhl grounded a ball sharply into the hole between first and second bases, with Kevin Bass leading off second, but Murray skidded along the infield to make the play and get the ball to first base and end the inning.

Did he surprise himself on that play? A level look: “No.”

Of course it is hardly fair to make Murray the centerpiece in a story about another Dodger defeat. The team batting average is just .204. And still, like Murray, they play tough.

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“We’re just not clicking,” he said of the hitters, “but we’re not going to hit the panic button. So long as we keep it close, I’m just glad to move on.”

Knowing that Murray has some hits in his date book must be of some solace to the Dodgers and their fans, although the New York Mets shouldn’t be too happy about this schedule. On May 15, the Dodgers open a three-game stand in Shea Stadium.

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