Pirates Hand Martinez His First Loss at Home

Shortly after being named to the National League All-Star team Thursday, Ramon Martinez learned one of the best things about achieving such an honor.

You can pitch poorly in your next start, and people will still cheer you.

Yes, those were cheers cascading over Martinez’s lowered head in the fifth inning when he was removed from an eventual 9-6 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates before 36,231 at Dodger Stadium.

Not that he didn’t warrant some applause. After all, he had struck out six in his 4 1/3 innings.

But his problems were with the balls the Pirates hit . In Martinez’s brief effort, Pittsburgh collected three home runs, including back-to-back homers by Andy Van Slyke and All-Star outfielder Bobby Bonilla. They added four line-drive singles, amounting to seven runs, six earned. It was the first loss after seven victories at home for Martinez (9-4), who will go to the All-Star game at Wrigley Field in Chicago next week in his biggest slump of the season.

In his last two starts, he has totaled just 9 1/3 innings, allowing 10 earned runs. During that time he has struck out nine, but walked eight, while his earned-run average jumped from 2.62 to 3.20.

Martinez’s performance against the NL East leaders was also untimely for the Dodgers, as they had scored four runs in the first inning against rookie pitcher Rick Reed, making his third start of the season.

That inning featured a two-run single by Mike Scioscia, the other Dodger selected to the All-Star team Thursday. Because of San Diego catcher Benito Santiago’s broken arm, Scioscia will start and bat seventh, according to National League Manager Roger Craig.

He will be the first Dodger catcher to start the All-Star game since Roy Campanella in 1954, and the first Dodger player to start the game at any position since Steve Sax started at second base in 1983.

In the Dodgers’ first inning, Hubie Brooks had an RBI single, his sixth RBI of the seven-game home stand, and Juan Samuel had a sacrifice fly.

But after that inning, Reed held. And Martinez didn’t.

The Pirates scored four runs off Martinez to tie the game in the second, and added an unearned run in the fourth and two more in the fifth to knock him out. In doing so, they reminded him that he wasn’t the only member of this year’s All-Star team on the field.

In the second, All-Star outfielder Barry Bonds led off with a single and stole second. Three pitches later, on a 2-and-0 fastball, Sid Bream homered to right field to make it 4-2. Bonds later hit his 15th homer, a two-run shot in the seventh inning against Mike Hartley.

The homer by Bream was just the beginning, as Mike LaValliere then singled and Jose Lind walked, setting up an RBI single by Wally Backman and sacrifice fly by Jay Bell.

While Reed was retiring 17 consecutive Dodgers at one point, Martinez and his teammates were struggling. LaValliere led off the fourth with a fly ball to right field that dropped out of Brooks’ glove for a two-base error. One out later, Reed singled in only his seventh at-bat this season. The hit moved LaValliere to third, where he scored on a fly ball to left field by Backman.

Martinez escaped the inning without further damage by fooling Bell into a grounder to shortstop. But the worst was yet to come.

On Martinez’s fifth pitch of the fifth inning, Van Slyke hit his full-count fastball over the left-field fence for his ninth homer. On the next pitch, Bonilla hit a ball in nearly the same place for his 15th homer. It was the Pirates’ first back-to-back homers since opening day.

Van Slyke is the only Pirate starting outfielder not in the All-Star game, but he could have easily been selected, as he has 40 RBIs and a .300 average.

Reed was finally driven from the game in the seventh inning, when his streak was broken by a double by Samuel and a walk to pinch-hitter Stan Javier. He was replaced by rookie Scott Ruskin, who walked pinch-hitter Mike Sharperson, and then allowed a two-run bouncing single between shortstop and third base by Kirk Gibson. The hit gave Gibson six multi-RBI games in just 21 starts. His single in the first inning had already extended his hitting streak to six games.

But with runners on first and third, Ruskin caught Kal Daniels looking at a third strike to end the inning.

Reed allowed six runs in 6 2/3 innings. He is 2-0 in three starts since being recalled by from triple-A Buffalo on June 5.

Dodger Notes

Terry Wells will fill the “undecided” spot in the Dodgers’ pitching rotation Sunday and face Pittsburgh in the final game before the All-Star break. . . . There was no indication Thursday of the past bad blood between the Pirates and Dodgers. The fans stirred when Hubie Brooks was hit in the right forearm by a pitch from Stan Belinda in the eighth, but Belinda, who also threw inside to Eddie Murray and Mike Scioscia in that inning, was just wild.

The presence of five relievers on the National League All-Star team made Dodger pitching coach Ron Perranoski smile. As a reliever for the Dodgers in 1963, Perranoski was 9-1 with 12 saves at the All-Star break and did not make the team. As a reliever with the Minnesota Twins in 1970, he had 21 saves at the All-Star break and did not make the team.

Despite three days off, there won’t be much of a break for the Dodgers next week. They will work out at Dodger Stadium Tuesday morning, and fly to Chicago Wednesday morning for a series with the Cubs, which begins Thursday. . . . Ron Walden, the Dodgers’ top pick in the June draft, improved his record to 2-0 in his second professional start for Great Falls in the Pioneer Rookie League with a 5-1 victory over Salt Lake City. In 14 2/3 professional innings, Walden has yet to allow an earned run.