Valenzuela’s Effort Lost on Dodgers, 2-1 : Cardinals Win Behind Magrane

He had just led his happy St. Louis Cardinals to another victory over those poor, blundering Dodgers. Those Dodgers who traded him two months before they won the World Series last season. Those Dodgers who voted him only a one-half share of the postseason money as a thanks for the memories.

He had just used a first-inning, run-scoring single Tuesday to beat those Dodgers, 2-1, and put his Cardinals two games above .500 while dropping his old team to a season-low four games under .500.

But, hey, Pedro Guerrero gloat?

You bet.

“You look at our team and even when we are down, we are always right there, always ready to come back and win,” the Cardinal first baseman said before nodding in the direction of the Dodger clubhouse. “But them over there, I don’t know.

“I just hope they keep struggling, especially against us. If they weren’t struggling, we would lose this game, 3-2.”

At least. In front of 35,532 at Busch Stadium, the Dodgers scored a run in the first inning on a wild pitch and then helped Joe Magrane by collecting only five hits, none after the third inning.

“I’m just glad I was not traded to the American League. I’m glad I was traded to where I can still play the Dodgers a couple of times a year, where I can still go back to Dodger Stadium,” Guerrero said. “I don’t want to show the fans, I want to show (the Dodgers).

“I just turned 33, but somebody over there said I have a 40-year-old body. Well, I play every day. They got young kids over there who don’t play every day. I haven’t been on the DL once this year, and I’m proud of that.”

He paused.

“They thought that I was through,” Guerrero said. “I prove, I am not.”

And how. The man traded for pitcher John Tudor is hitting .297, and is among the league leaders with 51 RBIs, and has a good chance of making his fifth All-Star game appearance.

At least the Dodgers got in one shot Tuesday. In the eighth inning, reliever Alejandro Pena hit Guerrero in the left side with a fastball to put him out of the game.

“It stung, and I was going to charge the mound to get him, but I don’t,” Guerrero said. “He is so slow, I could get him just after he released the pitch.”

The Dodgers should have been in the Cardinal clubhouse to hear Guerrero’s laughter. Lately they have forgotten that response. Their clubhouse has become silent.

“You can’t dig yourself such a hole that you hate to come to the ballpark,” Willie Randolph said. “I’m not like that--I just hope this team isn’t like that.”

Lately, they could hardly be blamed if they are. Tuesday’s game, which began under a late-afternoon glare at 5:30 p.m., was over before dark.

The Dodgers were ahead briefly in the first after Mickey Hatcher hit a triple to right field and then scored when Magrane threw a wild pitch.

But then Vince Coleman led off the Cardinals’ first inning by hitting a double off Dodger starter Fernando Valenzuela. On the next pitch, Coleman stole third base, just beating the throw by catcher Rick Dempsey. Coleman’s major league record of consecutive stolen bases is 44 over two seasons.

On the next pitch, Coleman scored on Jose Oquendo’s flyout to Mike Marshall. Ozzie Smith followed with a double down the left-field line, and then Guerrero looped an eventual game-winning single nearly off his knuckles, dropping the ball in front of left fielder Hatcher to score Smith.

If it seems as if Coleman has a habit of starting such rallies, well, not against the Dodgers. Last year the Dodgers caught Coleman three times in seven attempts, and overall, he has been safe on only 67% of his attempts against them--a league low--compared to his overall 82% success rate.

“So what?” Coleman barked afterward, proving that Guerrero does not have this team’s patent on gloats. “What are you trying to say? I can’t say why they throw me out. What, you think they have the best catchers in the league?”

That Guerrero’s hit came nearly off his fist just added to the Dodger insult--”I was ready to catch the ball, and then all of a sudden he hit it right below the label,” Dempsey said. “I was surprised he got it out there.”

Of course, if the Dodgers get more than five hits, that bloop is not a big play. Neither is what happened in the second inning, when the Dodgers seemed to come back after Dempsey hit a one-out double. Dave Anderson grounded a ball to shortstop that Dempsey lost in the sun. The ball hit him in the hip and he was ruled out.

“It’s like you stare at the ball as it comes off the bat, and then you lose it when it comes out of the light,” Dempsey said. “Of course, we wouldn’t have scored that inning anyway. We just aren’t getting the ball where we want it.”

And it has never been worse this season than this. Amazingly, Tuesday’s Magrane headache was the eighth time in the last 18 games the Dodgers have scored one or fewer runs. Not coincidentally, they have won only one of those games.

Valenzuela gave up two runs on four hits in six innings, but fell to his second consecutive loss, dropping his record to 4-7 even though he has given up only three earned runs in his last 13 innings.

The Dodgers hit the ball hard Tuesday, and they are certainly trying. But as Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda said before the game, sometimes you need more.

“I could hire a truck driver and pay him $800,000 and sure, he’d try,” Lasorda said. “I don’t want tryers. I want doers.”

Dodger Notes

It is uncertain whether John Tudor will make his scheduled third start Friday in his comeback from shoulder and elbow surgery. He experienced some pain in the shoulder when throwing in the outfield Tuesday, after experiencing pain when pitching on the sideline Monday. “We’re pointing toward Friday,” said team therapist Pat Screnar, with emphasis on the word pointing. “We’ll just have to wait and see.” If he does pitch, look for this to be Tudor’s final shot at staying active, considering he lasted only three innings in Sunday’s start before leaving with the tender shoulder. . . . The hottest and coldest Dodger hitters were benched Tuesday for different reasons. Shortstop Alfredo Griffin, who has raised his average 78 points since April 21 to .282, woke up Tuesday morning with a stiff lower back and was replaced by Dave Anderson. According to team trainers, the stiffness could have been caused by something as simple as the plane trip here. They said Griffin should return today. Kirk Gibson was benched because he had five hits in his last 58 at-bats and would be facing left-hander Joe Magrane, who is difficult on left-handed hitters.

Tracy Woodson was taken off the 15-day disabled list Tuesday, where he had been since June 19 with a strained right thigh muscle, and was sent to triple-A Albuquerque. Woodson appeared in only four games for the Dodgers after his June 6 recall. He went 0 for 6. . . . Cardinal Manager Whitey Herzog was asked if he empathized with the current Dodger struggle, as all three of Herzog’s National League champion teams have finished no better than third the next season. “Well, (Tom Lasorda) may not have had the best team last year,” Herzog said. “I know he wouldn’t have won the division if the Mets were in it. The Mets were the best team last year.”