Valenzuela Blanks Cubs on Four Hits

Shoulder to shoulder, Fernando Valenzuela spoke to Orel Hershiser Friday night.

From the Dodger Stadium pitching mound to a bed at Centinela Hospital Medical Center, with off-speed pitches and a full-speed heart, Valenzuela passed the word that guys who have had shoulder problems can still pitch.

As crazy at it sounds, guys who have had shoulder problems can even throw four-hit shutouts, which Valenzuela did against the Chicago Cubs in a 5-0 Dodger victory before 37,809.

It was Valenzuela’s first shutout in nearly three years, since July 17, 1987 against Pittsburgh, 71 starts ago. That shutout came before his shoulder problems in 1988, when he suffered ligament damage of which doctors will never know the severity because he would not allow himself to undergo extensive X-rays.

The problems were obviously not as bad as those afflicting Orel Hershiser, who underwent season-ending surgery Friday morning. Valenzuela treated himself by rest and rehabilitation.

But doctors say the two pitchers’ problems may have been in a similar area, which should hearten Hershiser if he was following the game from his hospital bed.

In breaking the Dodgers’ two-game losing streak, Valenzuela allowed just two singles and two doubles. He walked none. He struck out four.

He consistently made the big pitch to escape a jam. In the first inning, with Ryne Sandberg on second base and two outs, Valenzuela struck out Andre Dawson. With a runner on second and one out in the third inning, he retired Jerome Walton and Sandberg on grounders.

With a runner on second and one out in the fourth, he retired Lloyd McClendon and Domingo Ramos on grounders. Finally, with runners on second and third and one out in the eighth inning, he retired Mark Grace on a popout to shortstop and Dawson on a grounder. Valenzuela retired the side in the ninth inning for the victory.

After three mediocre outings, he has also won his first game of 1990, 42 days earlier than his first of last season during the start of a long comeback that is still not complete. Overall he is 1-2 with a 3.11 earned-run average.

And, oh yes, with a bat, Valenzuela did nearly as much damage Friday, driving in two runs, one with a daring suicide squeeze bunt.

The Dodgers scored four runs in the first six innings off starter Jose Nunez and reliever Paul Assenmacher. They added a run in the eighth off relievers Les Lancaster and Joe Kraemer.

With the score 2-0 after Mike Scioscia’s RBI double and first baseman Grace’s errors in the fourth inning, Valenzuela struck with the bat in the sixth.

With runners on first and second, Alfredo Griffin drove in a run with an double, moving Mike Sharperson to third. Out went starter Nunez, in came reliever Assenmacher. One pitcher later, Valenzuela laid down a perfect surprise bunt, scoring Sharperson to make it 4-0.

Two innings later, with bases loaded, Valenzuela greeted reliever Joe Kraemer, who had just replaced Lancaster, with a grounder up the middle that forced Griffin at second but scored Scioscia from third.

Grace, who entered with a 36-game errorless streak, made up for it by committed half as many errors as he committed in all of 1989--three.

He booted Lenny Harris’ grounder in the first inning for a two-base error, but was saved by Eddie Murray’s double-play grounder. Grace made a wild throw on Valenzuela’s sacrifice bunt attempt in the third, pulling Sandberg off first base. It was only Grace’s third fielding error in 217 games. Finally, his throwing error on a Griffin grounder gave the Dodgers their second run in the fourth.