Angry Murray Lightens Up, Lifts Dodgers, 7-5

Eddie Murray wasn’t in a good mood anyway. He was not in the starting lineup Thursday afternoon for the first time in the Dodgers’ 103 games this season.

Then before their game with the Houston Astros, teammate Lenny Harris approached him with a light bat, claiming to have the solution to Murray’s hitting problems.

“I said, ‘You’ve been popping the ball up with your heavy bat, so here, try this lighter one,’ ” Harris said. “I told him, ‘This bat will bring you good luck. This bat is the chosen one. “

Murray stared at him.

“He told me, ‘Get out of my face,’ ” Harris said.

But Harris persisted. For most of the game, he waved the bat in Murray’s face. And then in the ninth inning, with the Dodgers trailing, 5-4, and runners on first and second, Murray was called upon to pinch-hit. And Murray took the bat.

“He was really getting on my nerves,” Murray said. “I finally said, ‘I’ll take your little piece of nothing.’ ”

Three pitches from Dave Smith later, Murray drove a high sinker about 400 feet into the right-field seats. His three-run homer gave the Dodgers a 7-5 victory before 30,466 fans at the Astrodome. It was the first regular-season homer allowed by Smith in more than three years.

Said Harris: “What did I tell him? The bat was the chosen one. “

Said Murray: “I guess I owe him a meal at Burger King.”

Said Harris: “Tell him I would rather he donate to my wedding.”

Said Murray: “Tell him I’ve been known to send toasters.”

It was only the Dodgers’ second ninth-inning comeback this season, and their first in the last 96 games. It was only the fifth time they had won when trailing after the sixth inning.

“It’s nice to be able to fall behind and then do something about it,” said Murray, who had given the Dodgers their other ninth-inning comeback with a grand slam in San Francisco April 10. “That’s what the game is all about, to be up there at the plate with a chance to win it.”

It was team leader Murray’s 10th home run this season, making the Dodgers the last club in the National League to have a player reach double figures. And the way things were going Thursday, Murray wasn’t thinking about anything other than getting a chance to play.

In the morning, he was called into Manager Tom Lasorda’s office and told he would not be starting. Not only did his 102 starts lead the league, he had not missed a game since 1987 and had missed only two games in the last three seasons.

So Murray put up a fight.

“You don’t put me in there, you’re going to get a little bit of something from me,” Murray said. “I sign up to play. I want to play all I can.”

Lasorda, who had seen Murray get three hits in his last 20 at-bats, would not change his mind.

“Put it this way: He didn’t want the day off,” Lasorda said. “But I figured a day off would do him good.”

After the Astros scored five runs in four innings off starter Ramon Martinez, taking a 5-1 lead, it appeared that Murray would stay on the bench. But the Dodgers came back with two runs in the seventh and a run in the eighth.

He was in the on-deck circle once in the seventh but sat back down. The same thing happened in the eighth.

“And that doesn’t even count the times I was called up in the dugout for something,” Murray said. “I was going in at first base. I was going in at third base (where he finished the game). Right now, I’m tired.”

Said Lasorda: “We were waiting for the right situation. The home run situation.”

It finally came up in the ninth after Mickey Hatcher, who started at first base, singled to center field off reliever Larry Andersen. Billy Bean came in as a pinch-runner, and Jeff Hamilton singled off Andersen’s glove. Left-handed reliever Juan Agosto was brought in to face left-handed hitting Mike Scioscia and struck him out.

Up stepped Murray, batting for Dave Anderson. The switch-hitting Murray was only .197 against left-handers, batting nearly 60 points worse than against right-handers. Yet Agosto was relieved by right-handed stopper Smith.

“All year, right-handed, left-handed, Smitty has been getting everybody out,” Houston Manager Art Howe said.

Said Murray of the 2-and-0 pitch from Smith: “I was thinking about a strike, and he just got one up.”

“I wasn’t trying to throw a strike,” said Smith, who last allowed a home run on July 19, 1986. “I was trying to throw a sinker out of the strike zone. But it didn’t sink until it got over the wall.”

And Murray’s role now?

“He’s back in there tomorrow (tonight) in San Diego,” Lasorda said. “Hey, he’s had his six or seven innings off.”

Dodger Notes

Mike Marshall’s back was fine Thursday. He had an RBI double in the first inning and singled twice. He said the previous two days off helped him. “That (artificial) turf in Pittsburgh took its toll on me,” said Marshall, who appeared in all six games in the four days there. “I was worn out, and the couple of days off really helped it. We have a deep club, and there’s nothing wrong with getting some of the other guys in the lineup to keep everybody fresh.” . . . In picking up his 20th save with a hitless ninth inning Thursday, reliever Jay Howell moved closer to the Dodger record of 24 saves, shared by Jim Brewer (1970) and Jim Hughes (1954).

Mike Morgan, the starter turned reliever, was Thursday’s winner after throwing a scoreless eighth inning. “I guess I had one coming to me,” said Morgan, who lost seven of his last eight starts. The Dodgers totaled 11 runs in those losses.

After not having had a Gold Glove winner among their infielders since second baseman Davey Lopes in 1978, the Dodgers could have another one this year in Willie Randolph. As of July 24, Randolph had fewer errors, four, than any other regular National league second baseman. In his 14-year career, Randolph has yet to win a Gold Glove. When Randolph played for the New York Yankees, his American League nemesis was Kansas City’s Frank White. Now he must deal with Chicago’s Ryne Sandberg, who has won six straight Gold Gloves, a record for National League second basemen.

Randolph wears a red pin on the stirrup of the blue baseball sock on his left foot. The pin reads, “JDF,” for Juvenile Diabetes Foundation. His 10-year-old daughter, Chantre, has diabetes. “I wear it on my left sock so it will show up better when I’m batting,” Randolph said. “Maybe it will get picked up on television and somebody will ask about it and then donate some money.” Randolph was given the pin in New York this season by a young fan who threw it out of the stands. “I saw the kid yelling at me from behind home plate, then I see something come flying at me, and I ducked to miss it. I thought he was just being a bad boy. Then I picked it up and realized what it was I and waved at him.”