Tudor Effective; Dodgers Lose in 17 : Left-Hander Gives Up Two Runs, Five Hits in 4 1/3 Innings

He didn’t make it through the fifth inning. He didn’t get a victory. He gave up five hits and two runs and then left the game with one out and two runners on.

But in a box on the club level behind home plate, Dodger Vice President Fred Claire was smiling. Next to him, Dodger team doctor Frank Jobe was smiling.

And later Tuesday night, maybe when no one was looking too closely, maybe even John Tudor was smiling. Not like a star, but like a survivor, which for now must be good enough.

Pitching for the first time since walking off the mound in pain in Game 3 of the 1988 World Series, Tudor didn’t allow a hit to the first 12 San Diego Padres before running out of gas. He eventually surrendered two runs on five hits in 4 1/3 innings in a game that the Padres won, 5-3, in the 17th inning of a 5-hour 21-minute game.

The Padres scored their two 17th-inning runs on a one-out RBI single by Chris James and an RBI fly by Garry Templeton, but they really lost the game on a bad hop and stolen base.

Against Dodger pitcher Tim Belcher, working his fourth inning of the night, and his ninth inning in four days since moving from the starting rotation to the bullpen, Tony Gwynn hit a one-out grounder that bounced suddenly over the head of second baseman Dave Anderson. Three pitches later, Gwynn stole second, just beating the throw from catcher Rick Dempsey. Then after Jack Clark was intentionally walked, James shot a single to right field for one run, moving Clark to third. Then Templeton’s fly to left scored Clark and ended it.

After the Padres had taken a 3-2 lead on Tim Flannery’s run-scoring RBI single in the top of the 13th, John Shelby got things started against Padre reliever Mark Grant in the bottom of the inning with a single up the middle. Jeff Hamilton bunted Shelby to second, and Jose Gonzalez walked. Pat Clements relieved Grant and promptly threw a wild pitch that moved the runners to second and third. From there, all it took was a broken bat grounder by pinch-hitter Mike Davis to score Shelby with the tying run. Anderson walked and took second uncontested. The inning ended, however, when Alfredo Griffin grounded out to second.

In the five innings after Tudor left, Dodger relievers Alejandro Pena, Jay Howell and John Wetteland combined to strike out 11 of the 17 hitters they faced. Pena struck out two in the sixth and struck out the side in the seventh. Howell struck out three in two innings of work, and then Wetteland struck out the side in the 10th.

The Padres actually had a threat in the 11th, when they put runners on second and third with two out after Wetteland had advanced them by throwing a pitch so wild, it bounced off the ground and then off Dempsey’s mask and ended up back near the mound. But Wetteland exonerated himself and ended the inning by getting Mark Parent into a flyout.

Meanwhile, after the Dodgers had tied the game with a run in the sixth and seventh on RBI singles by Mickey Hatcher and Griffin, they also messed up offensively. They had runners on first and third with two out in the ninth and could have won it, but Dempsey hit a line drive directly at third baseman Luis Salazar for the third out.

Then they put two runners on base against reliever Greg Harris in the 11th, only to have 19-save man Mark Davis enter the game and get Griffin on a flyout to left to end it.

Claire was pleased with Tudor’s effort.

“He pitched very well, I’m pleased with what I saw,” Claire said of the pitcher who was just eight months removed from extensive shoulder and elbow surgery. “We’ll see how he responds to this, and go from there.”

When Claire was asked if he was surprised by Tudor’s outing, his smile disappeared.

“No, it’s not unbelievable,” Claire said. “That’s what John is all about. That’s what he asks of himself. That’s what he expects.”

Added Dr. Jobe: “Usually something like this takes at least a year. I’m very happy. John has worked very hard.”

Trailing 2-0 after Tudor had thrown 72 pitches and departed, the Dodger offense took it from there. Against Bruce Hurst, who brought a 19-inning scoreless streak into the game, they scored one in the sixth and another in the seventh to tie it.

In the sixth, Willie Randolph led off with a single but was forced at second on Gibson’sgrounder. Eddie Murray’s bouncer to first baseman Jack Clark moved Gibson to second, where he scored on Mickey Hatcher’s single to right. That hit was Hatcher’s sixth in his last 12 at-bats.

Another hot hitter delivered for the Dodgers in the seventh, after Gonzalez started things by beating out a grounder to second base.

After Gonzalez’s leadoff hit, Mike Scioscia bunted him to second. Pinch-hitter Dave Anderson then struck out, something pinch-hitter Mariano Duncan had done two innings earlier with Dodgers on first and second.

But with two out, up stepped Griffin, who entered the game with 31 hits in his last 85 at-bats (.365) to improve his average to a season-high .272. And he didn’t disappoint. He lined a one-strike Hurst pitch into left field for a single that scored Gonzalez with the tying run, with Griffin taking second on James’ weak throw to the plate. Randolph then drew a walk, setting up Gibson for some now-expected heroics.

But it just doesn’t happen every time. Gibson swung at Hurst’s first pitch and hit hit hard, but high, and center-fielder Shawn Abner was able to find it about 300 feet from home plate to end the inning.

By then Tudor was long gone, but certainly not forgotten. Not after the way this game started. It had started so easy. It was too easy. A man just doesn’t let some doctor reconstruct his pitching arm and then eight months later wrap that arm around the bats of big league hitters.

Yet that is what the first four innings were like. Tudor’s first pitch, to leadoff hitter Bip Roberts, was a strike. So was his second pitch. Two foul balls later, Roberts grounded out, all strikes. Two pitches later, Roberto Alomar hit a weak grounder to shortstop. Four pitches later, Gwynn struck out for just the 15th time this season. Eleven pitches, three outs.

In the second inning he retired the first two Padres just as quickly, with Clark striking out and James flying to center. After Tudor walked Templeton, he retired Parent on a grounder to shortstop to end the inning.

Then came Tudor’s third, and it didn’t last long. Abner popped to first base, Hurst struck out, and Roberts grounded to second. It seemed just as easy in the beginning of the fourth, as Alomar flied to right and Gwynn grounded to first. But then Tudor allowed back- to-back singles to Clark and James and the first signs of tiring were there. He finished the inning by getting Templeton on a fly-ball out, but it was never again so easy.

Parent led off the Padre fifth with a single to left. Abner did the same. Hurst bunted the runners over. Then, on a 3-and-1 pitch, Tudor walked Roberts.

With Ricky Horton warming up, it appeared the next batter, Alomar, was going to be Tudor’s last. And so he was, as he punched Tudor’s first pitch into right field to score two runs.

Dodger Notes

Mike Marshall took his first batting practice Tuesday since going on the disabled list May 31 with a weak lower back. The effect of the swings on his back will not be known until today, but Marshall said he hopes for some form of action by next week’s beginning of a six-game trip, the final series of games before the All-Star break. That action could be in the form of a minor league rehabilitation assignment, as Marshall admitted it would take four or five days to begin feeling comfortable. But he said mentally, he’s ready now. “It’s important for me to get back in the lineup, and have me penciled in at right field every day--with so many different lineups, it’s hard for us to win,” Marshall said. A Magnetic Resonance Imaging test was performed on Marshall and some wear was found on a lower disk, but it was nothing Marshall can’t work through.