Hernandez’s Fill-In Helps Beat Dodgers

The Mets started the day by learning that team co-captain Keith Hernandez had suffered a broken kneecap in a base-running collision the night before and would be out as long as eight weeks.

However, conditions improved over the short term when Dave Magadan filled in for him with an eighth-inning home run that helped the Mets score a 5-3 victory over the Dodgers.

That homer was the second in a back-to-back scene that greeted Dodger reliever Alejandro Pena in the eighth inning Thursday night. With the score 2-2, Kevin McReyonlds had started the inning with a home run to left. Magadan, who hadn’t homered or hit much of anything else this season, took him to right on the first pitch almost as soon as McReynolds reached the dugout.

Pena improved only to the extent that he held Barry Lyons to a walk. However, Lyons later scored, Pena was gone and so were the Dodgers.

The Dodgers had won three games in a row to reach the .500 level and had gotten the last two victories with some excellent relief pitching, including Pena’s the night before. But Pena has been inconsistent this season; Thursday night’s bombardment was his second such episode, and the Dodgers were a sub-.500 team again.

“What can I do?” asked Pena (1-2). “Just keep trying.”

“I fell behind, they know where it’s coming, they got it,” Pena said. “You come in situations like that, you got to throw strikes. I’m not doing that, I don’t know what’s happening.”

The Mets have to be wondering, too. Hernandez, who had been hitting .282 with 12 runs batted in, was the victim during a seemingly innocent play Wednesday night. He was trying to break up a double play when he ran into Dodger shortstop Dave Anderson, who had fielded a Darryl Strawberry grounder.

Anderson said, “I thought he’d stop and I could tag him and make the throw. But he came right at me.” Hernandez hit him straight up, and Anderson never did get the throw off. “We bumped kneecaps,” said Anderson, showing his swollen knee.

Hernandez stayed in the game for a while but left shortly before he was to bat. He was examined Thursday morning and placed on the 21-day disabled list.

Thursday night, Strawberry picked up some of the slack when he hit a two-run homer off starter Tim Leary in the fourth. There were more homers to follow, as it turned out.

“We’re going to need that,” Met Manager Davey Johnson said.

McReynolds said the victory was not an inspired one. “It wasn’t a win-one-for-the-Gipper game,” he said, “but naturally we’ll miss Keith.”

Until McReynolds and Magadan teamed up on Pena, it appeared that Strawberry and pitcher Dwight Gooden (6-1) would be all the Mets would require. In addition to his homer, Strawberry robbed Eddie Murray of what would have been the go-ahead run in the seventh.

Murray, who is 3 for 21 on this trip, hit a drive to right field, but Strawberry leaped and caught the ball at least two feet over the wall.

“As tall as he is (6 feet 6),” McReynolds said, “that was probably an easy catch for him. But it probably was a turning point, almost as good as Darryl hitting a home run himself.”

At first, it appeared that the Dodgers would take advantage of all opportunities, especially when they managed a run off Gooden in the second inning. With runners on first and third, Anderson squared away on the squeeze play. But the catcher, Lyons, appeared to have John Shelby nailed off third and was running him back for the putout. He tossed the ball to Howard Johnson, who dropped it, and Shelby got new life. He then scored on Anderson’s ground-out.

In the eighth, the Dodgers got another run during a rally that began with a walk. They beat the Mets with a walk the night before; this time Shelby walked, took third on Jeff Hamilton’s third hit of the night and scored on Anderson’s fly ball.

But in two other situations, which presented more conventional scoring opportunities, the Dodgers failed. In the fourth, they had the bases loaded with one out, but Gooden got the next two batters.

In the sixth, the Dodgers again loaded the bases. This time Gooden struck out Willie Randolph to end the inning. Manager Tom Lasorda, who has been coaching third base--he entertained fans with a few dance steps during a break--suddenly appeared disconsolate. After the strikeout, he lingered on the field, staring out to center field.

Even so, the Dodgers were in fine shape going into that eighth inning. Pena had worked two scoreless innings in the Dodgers’ 10-inning victory the night before. But he was off enough to give up Magadan’s fifth career home run.

“It was some weird slider,” Magadan said. “I was shocked to see that I hit the ball as hard as I did.”

Dodger Notes

Dodger relief work has usually been excellent. The relievers had come up with eight saves and a 2.34 earned-run averager going into Thursday’s game and had given up only four home runs. However, Alejandro Pena had given up three of them. . . . Jeff Hamilton is 7 for 19 on this trip, increasing his average to .232. . . . But John Shelby is hitting only .174, even after a 2-for-3 night. He’s only 4 for 21 on this trip. . . . Franklin Stubbs, who had stayed behind in Los Angeles after the birth of a son, rejoined the team Thursday in time to pinch-hit. He walked. . . . Darryl Strawberry’s catch of Eddie Murray’s drive left the Mets relatively unimpressed. “Aw, he’s 6-8 or something,” said Met Manager Davey Johnson, dismissing his leap. . . . A player might think twice before agreeing to become a Met captain. Keith Hernandez is sidelined, and the other one, catcher Gary Carter, is also on the disabled list. . . . The Dodgers are 1-9 vs. Dwight Gooden.