Hershiser Gives Dodgers a Victory--and a Scare

Orel Hershiser resisted the issue mightily. “Just a twinge,” he insisted afterward. But the questions persisted. After all, it had been twinge No. 2 in two starts and nobody ever remembered him leaving the game with “just a twinge” before. That was a first.

Hershiser agreed, reluctantly. “Now, you’ve got an angle,” he allowed, laughing.

How much of one remains to be seen. Hershiser, who left the game two outs into the eighth inning, is mystified but not otherwise disturbed by recurring elbow pain. As far as that goes, he says he wasn’t even in that much pain after the Dodgers’ 3-1 victory over the Houston Astros Saturday.

“I feel I could pitch right now,” he said.

From the Astros’ point of view, this is probably unnecessary. They felt the pain elsewhere. Except for right fielder Mike Marshall’s misplay on Bill Doran’s fly ball--it popped right out of his glove--the Astros would not have scored. If Hershiser was in pain, they didn’t seem to notice.

But this twinge was bigger than any game. Two games in a row. Twin twinges. A season of twinges loomed. It was up to Hershiser to defuse the angle.

Hershiser (2-1) denied a pattern but admitted he had felt something in his last start, against the San Francisco Giants. It came in the second inning, and he yelped, “What was that?” But he stayed in that game and came out with a victory. Saturday, it came when he threw--”overthrew” in his words--on two pitches to Glenn Davis. Pitching coach Ron Perranoski let him strike Davis out then visited the wincing Hershiser on the mound.

According to Hershiser, he got fast-talked into an early departure. Perranoski got him to agree that, no, he probably wouldn’t pitch the ninth. “So then he said, ‘Well, if you’re not pitching the ninth, then I might as well take you out.’ So, I guess I allowed him to take me out.” This is the distinction Hershiser makes. It’s not a complete game, but it’s not exactly coming out with a sore arm, either.

Hershiser spent the rest of the afternoon downplaying the twinge. “I’ve had elbow trouble my whole career,” he said. “It’s the first time it’s ever been two starts in a row, but it seems to happen on the same pitch, when I overextend, try to get a guy out.”

The 1988 National League Cy Young Award winner sighed. “Maybe I’ll have to pitch within myself the rest of my career.”

That should do. But, if the Dodgers are going to continue to leave men on base, he better never settle for anything less than that.

Saturday, on a gorgeous day at Dodger Stadium, the Dodgers once more started off an inning or two big, only to let runners expire in place. “That doesn’t set too well with the manager,” Manager Tom Lasorda said. “We got to pick these runners up.”

Marshall provided what has become a typical Dodger offensive. He homered in the third, with Dave Anderson on base. The home run has been the team’s primary device in the aforementioned picking up of runners. Nothing else--you might suggest base hits--has seemed to work.

“It’s nice to have that power in the middle of the lineup,” said Marshall, referring to himself, Eddie Murray and Kirk Gibson. “But that’s the only way we’ve been scoring. You can’t count on that.”

The Dodgers surely would have won more than four of their first 11 games if they could count on that. Still, this was their first victory in five games, so they weren’t about to disdain the homer. “You hit one out,” explained Marshall, “you get a well-pitched game, you can win one.”

That was Saturday’s plan. Hershiser almost did both, getting a lead-off triple in the fifth inning when Gerald Young charged a fly ball that he should have retreated on. As Hershiser was not advanced, he concentrated thereafter on pitching well.

It wasn’t always a finesse job, either. In the sixth inning, Davis leaned in on him. Hershiser, who may look meek enough off the field, can be wildly competitive on it. He, uh, brushed Davis back. Brushed him back hard.

“Davis has a reputation for tying games up,” Hershiser explained.

Davis had the same opportunity in the eighth inning after Rafael Ramirez singled and Terry Puhl walked. You could say Hershiser bore down on Davis.

A fastball--”a great pitch,” said catcher Rick Dempsey--and then a curve that Davis chased all the way across the plate to strike out on. “And then he just winced a little bit in pain,” Dempsey said, “and that was it.”

The Dodgers felt they could go into their precautionary mode at that point although events quickly destroyed their little comfort zone. Alejandro Pena came in to pitch to Bill Doran and yielded a fly to right field.

“I was playing a little deep,” Marshall said, “and I read line drive off the bat.” So he charged the ball and by the time he realized, no, it was not quite a line drive, “it was almost by me. A bad play.” The ball hit him in the palm of his glove and bounced back out. Ramirez scored, but that was that.

There was not much to speculate on afterward except for the condition of Hershiser’s arm. Hershiser said he’s being forced “to think why it happens.” Possibly, he suggests, it has to do with the number of innings he pitched last season followed by a spring in which the competitive juices never really flowed. Still, he didn’t want to read too much into it. “It’s the kind of pain I’ve felt before.”

Just a twinge.

Dodger Notes

Kirk Gibson held himself out of the game, except for a ninth-inning appearance in left field. “I have no, what’s the word I want, stamina. I played Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, and then I play Wednesday and I shouldn’t have and then opening day. . . . I’m a step beyond tired.” Gibson feels the hamstring irritation and a subsequent backache have kept him from getting into proper condition. “If I’m in good shape, I’m a horse. Then I can play tired. But right now . . . . Today’s pitchers: the Dodgers’ Tim Leary (1-1) vs. the Astros’ Jim Deshaies (1-1).