Scioscia Homer Leads Dodgers to 10-5 Win

Mike Scioscia doesn’t win batting titles. He doesn’t win Gold Gloves. What he has done for the Dodgers in his 10 major league seasons, and what he is doing for them this year, is more important.

He does what they need.

His backup catcher is hurt, so he plays with pain. The Dodgers have several young pitchers, so he calls games with patience. And Eddie Murray, Hubie Brooks and Kal Daniels have only two homers combined. So guess what?

Scioscia hits homers, the latest being an eighth-inning drive over Candlestick Park’s right field fence Tuesday to break a 5-5 tie and spark the Dodgers to a 10-5 victory over the San Francisco Giants.

While the struggling Dodger offense scored four runs in the ninth inning to make it look easy, it was not--which made it Scioscia’s kind of game. When he batted to start the eighth inning against Atlee Hammaker, the Dodgers had already blown leads of 3-0 and 5-4. The Giants had tied the score on Kevin Mitchell’s home run off Don Aase in the seventh inning.

Scioscia hit a 2-1 pitch for his third homer of the season, matching his total for the entire 1988 season. He had 10 last year, but that was considered an oddity, considering that in his previous eight full major league seasons he had 33 total, slightly more than four per year.

Run-scoring singles by Chris Gwynn, Scioscia, Alfredo Griffin and Mike Sharperson in the ninth offered insurance.

It appeared the Dodgers might win after taking a 5-4 lead with two runs in the seventh inning that featured Juan Samuel’s speed and Hubie Brooks’ RBI. But the Giants made the score 5-5 10 minutes later on Mitchell’s two-out, full-count home run.

The Dodgers had overcome a 4-3 Giant lead in the seventh inning. Samuel led off with a single against Randy O’Neal, the third San Francisco pitcher. Samuel stole second, easily beating the throw from catcher Terry Kennedy.

Willie Randolph singled to right field to score Samuel. Hammaker relieved O’Neal and was greeted with a perfect Daniels bunt that moved to Randolph to second base. After Murray hit a long fly to left, Brooks came through with a single to center to score Randolph. Brooks was stranded on a strikeout by pinch-hitter Mickey Hatcher, who is hitless in seven at-bats this season.

The game was a typical Dodger evening at Candlestick Park, their fortunes swirling in as many different directions as the flags in center field.

They took a 1-0 lead by scoring in the first inning for the first time this season. The run, against starter Scott Garrelts, came on a sacrifice fly by Brooks. And they could have had much more, but Lenny Harris’ pop-up left runners on second and third.

The Dodgers increased their lead to 3-0 in the third, on Murray’s two-out, full-count double down the right-field line. With Ramon Martinez holding the Giants to only two hits in the first three innings, all looked safe.

But after striking out Will Clark, Martinez then gave up a single to Mitchell. Martinez walked Matt Williams, who was drawing his first free pass this season after 31 at-bats.

Robby Thompson popped out to second base. But Kennedy, who had a .385 average entering the game, fought off several pitches before lining a ball down the first-base line and into the Giants’ bullpen for a two-run double.

The Dodgers still led by 3-2 at that point. Jose Uribe then hit a grounder past Martinez to shortstop Alfredo Griffin. The ball bounced off Griffin’s wrists and then rattled around his feet. When Griffin picked the ball up, Uribe was safe and Kennedy had moved to third.

Rick Leach, batting for pitcher Andy McGaffigan, worked Martinez to a full count before looping a single up the middle to score Kennedy and move Uribe to third base.

Brett Butler hit a chopper, bouncing the ball so high in front of Martinez that all the pitcher could do was stand under it and wait while Uribe was scoring the go-ahead run. Leach was enamored with the chopper such that he overran second base and was easily tagged after a throw from Martinez to second baseman Randolph.

Dodger Notes

Jeff Hamilton was given a cortisone injection for his sore right shoulder Monday, the once-minor ache becoming serious. The club has told Hamilton that if the shoulder does not feel better in a couple of days, he will undergo a Magnetic Resonance Imaging test, which could reveal muscle damage. Hamilton says he is so worried, he may ask for the test sooner. “I don’t want to feel good with the cortisone shot, but still have some damage in there, and then use the arm and make it worse,” Hamilton said. He may be the Dodgers’ first shortened-spring casualty. He said the shoulder, which sporadically ached during the winter, began to seriously hurt during an extra spring batting practice session that he might normally not have taken. “All of a sudden, I couldn’t hold the shoulder up,” Hamilton said. He said he did not discuss the soreness with anyone because he thought he could play with it. “It’s kind of hard to convince anybody you’re hurting when they still see you throwing the ball 90 m.p.h. from third base.” But recently, Hamilton said he felt himself altering his swing to accommodate the soreness. This could have accounted for his three-for-24 (.125) start. “I will not make excuses for it,” Hamilton said. “But there have been many pitches I have just missed--pitches I’ve seen great but just popped up. I’ve wondered if something wasn’t wrong.”