Another Dodger Disaster : Little Things Pave Way for Giants’ Win Over Valenzuela, 5-2

It isn’t as if the Dodgers didn’t once know these things. Call what the San Francisco Giants did to them Tuesday night a gentle reminder.

In San Francisco’s 5-2 victory in the first game of a series that the Dodgers said they needed to sweep, the Giants plainly showed them: This is how you lead the National League West since the middle of June.

Your starting shortstop, who was a minor league third baseman two weeks ago, hits his first home run since April 17.

Your leadoff hitter, with two hits in his last 31 at-bats, turns a single into a double. His speed then forces a rushed throw on the next batter’s bunt that eventually results in two more runs.

You use these things to get a lead. Then you look to the bullpen for the perfect closer. And there he is, a pitcher who in seven National League seasons has never lost to the Dodgers.

He throws three shutout innings to end it. In front of 35,716 at Dodger Stadium, the rich get richer and the Dodgers fall to 13 1/2 games out of first place, ever closer to reasonable elimination.

Wait a minute, wasn’t this the team that was going to smash the Dodgers with Will Clark and Kevin Mitchell? Those guys combined for two singles Tuesday. The Giants showed how championship equipment is mostly made of little pieces.

“That’s what it takes,” Dodger third baseman Jeff Hamilton said, shaking his head at a sudden memory. “That’s what we had last year.”

If the Giants take the Dodgers place this year--they lead Houston by one game--their heroes could go by the names of Williams, Butler and Lefferts.

Matt Williams tied the score, 1-1, in the fifth inning with a homer off Dodger starter and loser Fernando Valenzuela. It was Williams’ third homer of the year, his first since being recalled from triple-A Phoenix July 23.

Leadoff hitter Brett Butler then broke it open in the sixth. After he outran right fielder Mike Marshall’s throw for a double, he dashed toward third on a bunt by Robby Thompson. Valenzuela picked up the bunt and threw past Hamilton and into left field.

Butler scored and Thompson finished his sprint on third base, from where he made the score 3-1 on a Mitchell sacrifice fly.

After the Dodgers closed the gap on Kal Daniels’ fourth homer, it was time for reliever Craig Lefferts, who came out for the seventh inning with an intimidating resume. In 45 games against the Dodgers, he was 8-0 with two saves and a 2.40 ERA.

He allowed Dodgers to reach third base in the seventh and eighth, but both times squelched the rally with a big pitch. He struck out Daniels to end the seventh. With Marshall on third and one out in the eighth, he retired pinch-hitter Mickey Hatcher on a ground out and struck out Hamilton.

And that was that. Lesson learned.

“You look back on it now and you realize, there’s been 24 guys here for us all the time,” Lefferts said. “Sure, it seemed like Mitchell carried us--and I mean carried us for a couple of months. But there has always been other guys around, everybody doing their part.

“That’s what people mean when they talk about chemistry. Right about now, that’s what we have.”

Could that chemistry have involved some potion that allowed Lefferts, who is 24-38 career against the rest of the league, to dominate the Dodgers?

“Actually, for a relief pitcher to get wins, your team has to score runs late in the game,” Lefferts said. “And back in those years I was picking up most of the wins, the Dodgers didn’t have a very good bullpen. We got runs, and I got lucky.”

Feeling the other way Tuesday was Valenzuela. Using all of his pitches about as well as he can, he gave up one earned run on five hits in seven innings. He struck out Mitchell twice. Until the sixth inning, outside of Williams’ homer, a Giant runner did not get past second.

But then came Butler and the bad throw.

“I feel really bad I couldn’t come up with it,” Hamilton said. “It was off the bag and nearly into the runner, and I tried to grab it and let the runner slide into it. But I just couldn’t get my glove out there.”

Valenzuela, who was the league’s Gold Glove pitcher in 1986, said even the national television audience saw it better than he did.

“I turn and throw to third base and the next thing, I see the ball rolling into left field,” said Valenzuela, who is 5-11 despite an improving 3.76 ERA. “I don’t know if I had time to throw to the base it would be different or not. But Scioscia (Mike) said throw it, so I throw it. That was the key play right there.”

Dodger Notes

It is appearing more and more probable that Kirk Gibson will not return to the Dodgers this season. Gibson, who rejoined the club Tuesday, did not sound thrilled by the diagnosis he received from doctors in Michigan, which was similar to one by the Dodgers. The area around both knees is inflamed, and the only cure is rehabilitation and rest, which thus far has been no cure. An option, he said, would be exploratory surgery, in which case his season would be finished. “I’ve tried rehabilitating and then playing twice, and it hasn’t worked either time,” said Gibson, who went on the disabled list July 23 with a sprained right knee and chronic left hamstring strain. “So if I just rehabilitate again and it doesn’t work? What happens then?” He said surgery would be a last resort. “I’m going to wait until it calms down, and then I’m going to run on it, and give it one last shot, and then decide,” Gibson said. When asked if he thought he would return this year, Gibson said, “I can’t read a crystal ball, I don’t know.”