Deshaies Pitches Up a Storm, 7-2 : Astro No-Hits Dodgers for 7 2/3 Innings Before Settling for Two-Hitter

On the first day of hurricane season, the Dodgers breezed into town for the first game of an eight-game trip Thursday night and were promptly blown out of the Astrodome by the Houston Astros.

They managed only two hits against left-hander Jim Deshaies, neither of them before the eighth inning of a 7-2 loss.

And neither was worth bragging about.

Or as the Dodgers’ Mickey Hatcher put it afterward, “Take away two donkey hits and he’s got a no-hitter.”

Hatcher ended the no-hit bid with two out in the eighth, sending a grounder back through the middle that probably could have been handled by shortstop Rafael Ramirez if Deshaies hadn’t deflected the ball.

“That’s a pitcher’s nightmare,” Hatcher said. “When I hit it, I (thought) it was an out.”

Eddie Murray added a bloop single in the ninth inning.

Otherwise, the Dodgers were powerless against Deshaies, and not for the first time, either.

Deshaies, 28, is 6-0 against the Dodgers at the Astrodome, including a shutout on Sept. 23, 1986, when, as a rookie, he struck out the Dodgers’ first eight batters to establish a modern major league record.

“We couldn’t hit him with a tennis racket,” Hatcher said.

If he had completed the no-hitter, Deshaies wouldn’t have been the first product of LeMoyne College to perform the feat against the Dodgers.

His former teammate at the school in Syracuse, N.Y., Tom Browning of the Cincinnati Reds, pitched a perfect game against the Dodgers last Sept. 16.

So, who was the ace of the staff that led LeMoyne to the Division II College World Series in 1979?

“I’m not saying,” Deshaies said, laughing.

Deshaies wasn’t laughing when Hatcher’s grounder ricocheted off his glove, ending any suspense left in a game the streaking Astros led, 5-0, after scoring four unearned runs in the first three innings.

“I’d like to say that I was cool and collected,” he said, “but I was really excited. You don’t get too many opportunities to take a no-hitter into the eighth inning and you want to take advantage of them.”

Deshaies thought he should have stopped Hatcher’s grounder.

“I was disappointed, really disappointed,” he said. “I thought I should have made the play. They ruled it a hit real quick. It was up by the time I turned around and looked at the board.

“Maybe it was a tougher play than I thought. But I think if you get your glove on it, you’ve got a chance to make the play.”

Even if Hatcher had lined a pitch off the wall, it wouldn’t have been any easier to take, Deshaies said.

“Not at the time,” he said. “At the time, your immediate reaction is disappointment, whether it’s a BB off the wall or an infield chopper, but when you go back and look at the tape. . . .

“That’s probably what will eat at me. We had two chances to get that ball: I could have had it, or I could have stayed away and let Raffy have it.”

It was a reflex action to stab at it, he said. “You can’t just let the ball go through,” he said.

It was one of the few tough plays for the Astros, whose seven-game winning streak equals the longest in the National League this season.

In the fourth inning, Jeff Hamilton’s check-swing dribbler was mishandled by Ramirez for an error, though the call was debatable. It was a tough play, and Hamilton might have beaten the throw.

Then, with one out in the eighth, pinch-hitter Rick Dempsey sent a grounder through the middle that stuck momentarily in the glove of second baseman Bill Doran, whose throw to first base was dug out of the dirt by Glenn Davis.

“I didn’t have overpowering stuff,” Deshaies said, “but in my last two starts I didn’t have real good rhythm, so I was trying to stay real slow with my motion.

“Early on, I was still fighting my slider, trying to get it where I wanted. It wasn’t until maybe the fourth or fifth that I started to throw consistent strikes with my slider and my changeup and could do what I wanted.”

And if Deshaies had gotten the no-hitter?

“Scouts all over the league would have been hitting LeMoyne College,” he said, laughing again.

Dodger Notes

Mike Marshall, who made the trip Wednesday night and took batting practice Thursday, is scheduled to return this morning to Los Angeles, where he will be examined by back specialist Dr. Robert Watkins. Marshall has missed 11 of 50 starts this season because of chronic stiffness in his lower back. . . . Alfredo Griffin, arguing a called third strike from the dugout after striking out in the third inning, was ejected by umpire Paul Runge. . . . Glenn Davis scored the Astros’ first run in the second inning, kicking the ball out of the glove of Dodger catcher Mike Scioscia after Griffin’s throw beat Davis to the plate. “You go in there timidly and you’ll get hurt,” Davis said.