Victory Is Like Season: Flawed : Dodgers’ Hershiser Wins, but Barely Loses ERA Title

Fred Claire peered over the tops of umbrellas above the handful of fans. He looked down to the tiny rivers running behind home plate, the pond in right field, and groundskeepers wearing hip boots. He looked down at a Dodger team that was so wet, bats were slipping out of their hands and balls sliding out of their gloves.

Then, quite possibly for the first time since April 3, he laughed.

“This certainly is different from our last game of last season,” the Dodger vice president said.

After defeating the Atlanta Braves, 3-1 in 12 innings in the first game of a scheduled doubleheader Sunday, the Dodgers saw their season end in a manner nearly as strange as last year’s world championship. Even though the rain had stopped midway through the first game, immediately afterward crew chief Bob Engel canceled the second game.

The Dodgers, who finished the season with a four-game winning streak and a 77-83 record, weren’t complaining. At least they will be known for something, as their 160 games are the fewest by a Dodger team during a non-strike year since baseball went to an 162-game schedule in 1962. Their losing record is not as original--it is their third in the last four years.

The Dodgers had already celebrated the end of the season and their fourth-place finish once, early Sunday afternoon, when it appeared that rain would wipe out the entire meaningless weekend series.

And then the worst happened. The rain stopped. And two 2 hours 23 minutes after the scheduled start, in front of 4,840 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, what became the Dodgers’ final game finally began.

It ended more than three hours later, after Mike Davis drew a walk and pinch-runner Dave Anderson scored from first when pitcher Jay Aldrich threw a Jose Vizcaino bunt into the Braves bullpen. Vizcaino scored from third on an fly ball by John Shelby to seal a .500 season for starter Orel Hershiser, who threw 161 pitches in giving up one earned run in 11 innings.

It was Hershiser’s first win since Aug. 8. He finished 15-15 with a 2.31 ERA. He barely lost the ERA crown to San Francisco’s Scott Garrelts, who had a 2.28 ERA.

Earlier, Hershiser addressed the team’s needs for 1989.

He said the Dodgers need speed, not merely in an everyday center fielder, but in a fifth outfielder/pinch runner. He said they need better chemistry. And he said the Dodgers need to re-sign Rick Dempsey.

“I’m a large advocate of signing Dempsey,” said Hershiser of the 40-year-old catcher, whose contract expires this winter. “He’s been fantastic for this pitching staff.”

But Hershiser said the Dodgers will need some new players--two in particular.

“We obviously need to increase our team speed and, while everybody will point to center field as the position, I don’t think it can be done in one position,” he said. “We also need a guy who can come off the bench and steal a base for us right away. A guy who could pinch-run for a Jeff Hamilton or Mike Scioscia or Mike Marshall, and then maybe score from second base to tie or win the game. That guy could have affected 10-15 games this year.

“Our new guys this year were great guys, and played great, but they just didn’t come in here and make this team mix together,” he said, citing Willie Randolph and Eddie Murray. “It was like oil and water in here. We need some other ingredients, something to pull us together.”